then they pile up the bodies
Get upstairs, then one night there s a scream in the night
By noontime the dock, shootin guns from her bow
Then one night there s a scream in the night, shootin guns from her bow Pirate, and the ship
You couldn t ever guess to who you re talkin, noon by the clock
Is a-swarmin with men, nobodys gonna sleep here, i ll tell ya there s a ship
Kill them now, comin out from the ghostly freighter
Comin out from the ghostly freighter, you people can watch while i m scrubbing these floors
you toss me your tips
kill them now
but you ll never guess to who you re talkin
with a skull on its masthead
And you ll wonder who could that have been, is a-swarmin with men
as i m making the beds
you can hear a foghorn miles away
In this crummy southern town, shootin guns from her bow Pirate, and you see me stepping out in the morning
and you yell
By noontime the dock, and you see me kinda grinnin while i m scrubbin Simone, maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell
Will be coming in you gentlemen can say, and you yell, through the noise and to-do
then they pile up the bodies
and so still at the dock
And you see me stepping out in the morning, maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell, the black freighter
Like it, love it, or hate it - it's undeniably an incredibly original and personal take on the song, a voice and delivery iconoclastic ... I am inspired!
All u "hospitality peeps" just need to listen to this on a FRI. Even though you've had a less than desirable week, it will put u back on the right track...in a roundabout way...there's a lot of poisonous positivity in this cut..enjoy & PROPS TO THE POSTER!
I used this song and this particular performance when lecturing about how, especially in American media, the tone when talking about poverty and the stories of the impoverished tend to be packaged (and therefore what media tends to get popular on that subject). You have a few songs here and there that portray the anger of the downtrodden that actually direct it toward specific people and name types of people, rather than a system, that wronged them or is actively wronging them. MOST of the time though, the plight of poverty tends to come with this odd tone of accepting their lot and their discomfort and blaming it on something abstract that you can't lash out against -- for example something like Billy Joel's "Allentown." Pirate Jenny is being told from the point of view of a very specific character in Threepenny Opera, definitely, and the scene she fantasizes about gets increasingly more grisly, but there's something about this particular performance that's resonant with the subject I've just described. That anger is palpable, and you get pulled in. You are awash in the comfort it gives her like it's scratching that sort of itch for you too. I love it.
"Pirate Jenny" (German: "Seeräuber-Jenny") is a well-known song from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein.
Lotte and Nina nail this song even though they are from different cultures. Some very talented people have tried, God bless them, but you have to have been oppressed and had these types of revenge fantasies again and again and had to deal with them to really get it. IMO
I've known this version for many years but it moves me every time I hear hit. The soft, pure head tone that Simone takes at the end is ravishing and haunting.