Music and the Fictive Dream
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
"Hoist the
Colours"
Growing up, I have always been a fan of the "Pirate
Life" and was fascinated with the notorious pirates that sailed the seven
seas. In 2003, Disney started the "Pirates of the Caribbean"
franchise and captivated the world with Captain Jack Sparrow. As the
franchise continued, pirate culture began to make an appearance when sea
shanties started to become famous on social media. For me, though, the
best sea shanty came from the 3rd movie in the "Pirates of the
Caribbean" series, "Hoist the Colours."
In 2007, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's
End" was released in theaters and made $114,732,820 on the opening
weekend. As of now, "At World's End" has made $960,996,492 in
worldwide sales and ranks number 29 on Disney's worldwide record sales. This is
the second most popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, with "Dead
Man's Chest" ranking as number one.
"At World's End" starts by showing the East India
Trading Company doing a mass hanging of convicted pirates. As the hanging
continues, a young boy/cabin boy convicted of piracy steps up to the noose and
looks up at it. He then begins to sing the sea shanty "Hoist the
Colours," which is his last act of defiance and freedom before he is
hung. This song acts as a call to arms to summon the Brethren Court in
the movie.
This song sets the tone for the movie and gives incredible
foreshadowing if one knows the meaning of the song before watching the
movie. The song's lyrics describe how the First Brethren Court bound the
Sea Goddess Calypso to human form, allowing man to rule the seas. Now, in
the movie, you only hear the first verse and the chorus before the cabin boy is
hung, and the scene cuts to black. The second verse talks about how the
old nine Pirate Lords have died and passed on the keys that bind Calypso to her
human form. The third verse describes how the call to arms has been sung,
and it is time for the Pirate Lords to return home, meaning Shipwreck
Cove.
"Hoist the Colours" Lyrics
The king and his men
Stole the queen from her bed
And bound her in her bones
The seas be ours
And by the powers
Where we will, we'll roam
Yo, ho, all hands
Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
Now, some have died
And some are alive
And others sail on the sea
With the keys to the cage
And the Devil to pay
We lay to Fiddler's Green
Yo, ho, all hands
Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
Yo, ho, all together
Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die!
The bell has been raised
From its watery grave
Do you hear its sepulchral tone?
We are a call to all
Pay heed the squall
And turn your sail toward home
Yo, ho, all hands
Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die
Yo, ho, all together
Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die!
Sadly, this sea shanty is entirely made up for the movie and
wasn't real back in the pirate age. The song was produced by Hans
Zimmerman, Ted Elliot, and Terry Russio for "At World's End."
However, it was inspired by the history of an old British nursery rhyme, "Sing
a Song of Sixpence." According to pirate history and lore, the
notorious Black Beard (aka Edward Teach) had a secret code when recruiting new
pirates for his crew. He didn't want to be obvious by using a violent
code for recruiting, so he chose a simple nursery rhyme and supposedly changed
a few words. Thus, this allows his crew to know when someone wanted to
sail on Queen Anne's Revenge (Black Beards Ship) and not when some random
person sang a familiar nursery rhyme. This rhyme was also considered
appropriate for Black Beard since he paid his crew sixpence, not including the
spoils of piracy. Another theory is that this song was also chosen as the
secret pirate song due to a part in the song where a maid had her nose broken
by a blackbird, which is a play on words for Black Beard. Regardless, the
history of Black Beard's secret song inspired the makers of "Pirates of
the Caribbean: At World's End" to create their secret pirate song.
When looking at this song outside of "Pirates of the
Caribbean," the saying "Hoist the colours" was used by ships to
identify their country of origin and to show if they were friendly or hostile
to nearby passing ships. For example, if a British ship were nearing
another British ship, they would raise the British flag, and the ships would
sail in their merry way. However, if a British ship passed by a Spanish
vessel, there would likely be a battle. A great historical example of
this would be the privateer, Sir Henry Morgan, more commonly known to rum
drinkers as Captain Morgan. The British government empowered him to sink
any Spanish vessels he encountered while rum-running. The ships would
hoist their colors, and Captain Morgan would attack without warning, take what
he wanted, and sink the Spanish ships.
In more modern times, the saying "Hoist the
Colours" can be found alongside "Sometimes you just need to raise a
black flag." I first heard this saying while in the military about
lousy leadership. We used these sayings to inform our leadership that
they needed to stop working us to the bone and that the quality of life needed
to be improved. In the past, this would have been mutiny and would be
cause for a death sentence. But now, the soldiers have the power to skip
over their immediate and go to the next level of authority to try to implement
change that will improve the organization. I have done this twice where I
needed to eliminate lousy leadership.
"Hoist the Colours" starts with a very dooming and dark introduction
with the sound of eerie wind gusts and heavy beatings of drums, giving a gloomy
timbre. As the song continues and the vocals begin, the tone that the
cabin boy starts with is sad and defeated (since he's about to be hung), and
the dooming drums help set this tone. This dark atmosphere is maintained
until the pirates start singing together. Then, the timbre goes from dark
and gloomy to rich and powerful. They shift the song's dynamics from slow
and soft to slow and loud/powerful. They demonstrate their defiance of
government and want a free life till the bitter end. The melody and
lyrics during the chorus provide the power and defiance the pirates give off by
dragging out some of the lyrics and having the melody follow suit. The
first example video from the movie only gives the first verse and chorus.
The second video shows the whole song in all of its glory.
Work Cited
ReplyDeleteHi Jarrod.
This is a very interesting blog post, I was not expecting to see a pirates of the caribbean song in this class. I remember first seeing this movie as a small child and finding the hanging singing scene to be very powerful. That being said, I think the social commentary is fairly weak in this song beyond the surface level cry for freedom. Beyond that I believe you did an amazing job explaining your perspective.
I did not grow up loving all thing pirates, but the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise somehow grabbed my attention, and I have been hooked ever since. I never knew the name of the song from the hanging scene, let alone the history behind it, so thank you for sharing your explanation and view.
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