A Mad, Mad World

September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day — one of those wonderful absurdities that has taken hold of many a lover of piracy legend and lore.

For an entertaining collection of real and fantastical English pirate language read “The Pirate Primer – Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues” by George Choundas.

The stereotypical pirate speech pattern is based on the English coastal dialect made famous by actor, Robert Newton in his role as Long John Silver.

Truth is, the languages spoken by the pirates who plied the waves of the North Atlantic seaboards and Caribbean during the 17th & 18th centuries were as diverse as the mariners themselves. Sailors spoke Scottish, Irish and Manx, Welsh, Breton, French, Spanish, many African languages, indigenous tongues of the people in the new world, and many more, all laced with nautical lingo and a salty twist. I imagine many sailors were polyglots by sheer necessity especially on pirate crews.

Luck t’ye and a fair wind,

Mad Mags

“They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only one difference, they rob the poor under the cover of the law and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage.” — Captain Bellamy

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Thanks to everyone who made the “Skull & Magpies” party at the Accordion Apocalypse a success. It was a fine and rich musical feast. The night was clear and mild with a nearly full moon — perfect for a pirate’s party.

Shannon O’Hare of “Never Was Haul” fame created a wonder filled, nautical atmosphere with block and tackle, ship lights, skeleton, cannons and more. The revelers were fantastically garbed in periwigs, frock coats, bodices, tricornes, bandanas and stripes and skulls everywhere you looked.

Stew Murrie digitally photographed. Erin Cameron videotaped 24p with her Panasonic DVX 100. Dan Brandon ran sound and multi-track recorded to Digital Performer.

We’re eagerly awaiting the media captured so we can share it with everyone. We’ll post it for all to enjoy as soon as possible.

Skyler and Melody were gracious hosts and their tail-wagging accomplices, Ukelele and Garlic were very accommodating of the human sea dogs.

Luz sparkled as our mistress of ceremonies. Her art and humour moved the night along perfectly.

Nada Lewis and Alex opened the show with a skillfully played set of toe-tapping, traditional deck dancing tunes.

Entr’actes included Amber Lee, who sang and played beautifully, Secret Circus, whose antics razzled and dazzled and Vaughn, who performed a delightful, magical, balloon trick.

Joan Wilson Rueter as The Gunner’s Daughter dished up some fine, seafaring fare including a lively, “Drunken Sailor”. Next up was the inimitable, sea-dwelling troglodyte jugband The Hobo Gobbelins. Surprise guests Human Wine followed.

We took the stage at around 11 PM and roused the rabble with tunes from “Skull & Magpies” and other hits from our repertoire. Pirates danced, wenches sang, ghosts shimmied on the rigging, bumboo flowed.

Erstwhile Mad Maggie, JX Lovejones graced us with his clarinet playing on a couple of tunes.

Ah yes, my hearts, it was a grand evening. Happy and content we sailed away in the wee hours swearing to carouse again when next we meet such a lively band of rovers.

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My rococco dress was made by clothing designer, Connie Walkershaw who is also the fabulous saxaphonist with Go Van Gogh.

The vintage pirate movies projected were “The Black Pirate” (1926) starring Douglas Fairbanks, filmed in two strip technicolor and “Captain Kidd” (1945) starring Charles Laughton and Captain Kidd’s Kids (1919) with Harold Lloyd.

Bumboo is a favorite pirate drink made of rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. Of course the recipe may vary.

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Already 2009 has been busy. Our first gig of the year was at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. This was our triumphant return to this venue and boy did we make sure that people got a taste of what they had been missing.

Tara Linda organized “Wild Accordion Women” (co-produced with Down Home Music). This Accordion Babes event showcased more talented female accordion players from the Bay Area. As we know, accordionist Mad Mags is very talented as she writes and arranges the majority of our tunes, plays with great style and looks wonderful as she does it!

The other acts really warmed up the audience for us, It has to be said that we got the place jumping; seats were for coats and nothing else! Everyone was taken by the music and just let us do what we do best- play well, play out and play often!

Marin Music Live also saw a protracted performance with other local world musicians. Once again we showed how it is done. Our friends Djiin also played – there is talk of us playing together in the future. It is hoped that video taken at the event will be shown on a local access Comcast station – dates unknown as yet but stay tuned! The event was free to all and we hope that the publicity will help secure more gigs.

We made out and as such a large group of mad musicians this is no mean feat! Go Van Gogh threw us a musical gauntlet and we accepted. The Make Out Room in San Francisco hosted this Klezmer battle of the bands. There was dancing, merriment and a fun time was had by all. JB and I took the boxing theme rather seriously and came armed with boxing gloves. I even dropeed my skirt to reveal leggings and boxing shorts- sorry you missed this gig now? There was no knock out but we are hoping for a rematch as we would like to flex our musical muscles with this fine band once again!

THE event of February is our upcoming release party which is on February 7^th and promises to be a night of pirates, folk music, shanties, costumes and recreations of days of yore. More details will be posted nearer the time. The event ties in with the piratical theme of our newest CD, Skull and Magpies. Costumes are not optional and the visual extravaganza that is to be our evening of musical mayhem should not be missed.

Here is a review of the new CD from our fan, Alex:

“A big big thank you for my CD. It looks absolutely amazing! I love the artwork, the new logo and the new songs.
Studio simply cannot imitate the dynamics of a live band playing in front of a crowd of cheering audience. I would say your new album is a perfect teaser for people who can’t wait to see you playing live. I am definitely one of them. Favourite song – it must be: Morning Star! ”

Come and see what he is raving about! Choose your own favourite from Skull and Magpies.

And we’ve been podcast. BilgeMunky.com played “Rough Music” (listen to show 65 ) and Wild Wilson has spun us several times on his show in Minnesota.

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After her recent post on Robert Newton, Maggie asked me to find some more movie pirates. Of course, Errol Flynn is probably the most famous, in the role of my noted ancestor Peter Blood – Captain Blood. In addition to him and Johnny Depp there are such natural swashbucklers as:

• Douglas Fairbanks The Black Pirate, 1926
• Tyrone Power Black Sun, 1942
• the deep-voiced, knavish Charles Laughton Captain Kidd 1945
• and his 60s avatar Peter Ustinov, in the Disney movie from my youth Blackbeard’s Ghost
• Orson Welles played Long John Silver in his hand-trembling, Gallo wine-selling days (to wit, 1971)
• Wallace Beery played the role in 1934, in a version of Treasure Island directed by The Wizard of Oz’s Victor Fleming, and the Wizard himself
• Frank Morgan, was in an early Technicolor (1936) called The Dancing Pirate
• Burt Lancaster was in the pirate comedy Crimson Pirate in 1952
• Anthony Quinn and James Coburn were in 1965’s High Winds in Jamaica
• Yul Brunner in The Buccaneer (1958)
• Walter Matthau in Pirates (1986, directed by Roman Polanski).

Other movie pirates include:

• Fred MacMurray Fair Wind to Java (1953)
• Gene Kelly The Pirate (1948)
• Bob Hope The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
• Bugs Bunny Buccaneer Bunny (1948),
• Kevin Kline The Pirates of Penzance 1983),
• Geena Davis Cutthroat Island (1995)
• and Jackie Chan ‘A’ gai waak (1983)

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Aye, my hearts, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day (Thanks to Miguel for reminding us.)

And seeings as our upcoming CD has to do with piratical riff-raff and adventures on the high seas, I enthusiastically encourage you to delve into you inner buccaneer.

There is not one way to sound like a pirate. Those who plied the waves came from all over — Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, continental Europe, colonial America, Africa, the Carribean, the Crimea, the Far East. The sounds of the language on board were much more diverse than “Aaargh, mateys”!

What we think of as pirate talk today is based largely on one particular actor’s interpretation of Long John Silver. (“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson.) That be Robert Newton, a native of Dorset, England who became famous in the 50s for his work as Long John Silver for Walt Disney films and later in a TV series.

Newton was familair with the accent of nearby Bristol from whence the character Long John Silver hailed and he used that accent to infuse his characterization of the one-legged, story-telling, salty dog.

Enjoy a clip of Robert Newton’s now classic portrayal.

more about pirate language
a tribute to Robert Newton

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