My posting of a day or two back about a song to sum up the Obama years got me thinking about a song I heard a few years ago that really struck a chord… “Hoist the Colors,” written by Hans Zimmer for “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” It’s shown being sung at the beginning of the movie by a bunch of prisoners who have been stripped of their rights, and are being marched to the gallows by their own government (gosh… why would “the Obama years” make me think of such a thing?). It’s a haunting little ditty, and speaks to freedom.
A YouTube of the relevant scenes (subtitled in, oddly, Portugese)
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 colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
<>
Some men 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!
<>The bell has been raised
from it’s watery grave…
Hear it’s sepulchral tone
Call to all,
pay head the squall
and turn your sail toward home!
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
Someone did a pretty good cover of it, posted on YouTube here.
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