Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys

I came across a compilation album of sea shanties performed by a wide array of artists on a CD set called "Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys." The songs are sung by a host of artists ranging from Sting to Bryan Ferry and Bono, representing a variety of genres.


Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski  while working on the two "Pirates Of The Carribean" films,  became fascinated with the lore and fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas.  They hatched the idea to produce a CD of Pirate Shanties performed by rock stars.  With legendary producer Hal Wilner, the CD has some great music.


Today I am featuring a song performed by Bono: "A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates." This song is masterfully performed and I love the instrumentation.

Jolly Roger

Roger McGuinn, formerly of the Byrds, has a great song about the Jolly Roger. Below is a video with the song.  The song is off his 1976 Cardiff Rose album. Sadly, Cardiff Rose didn't fare especially well on the sales charts, but I do like this pirate song. Listen to the music and imagine being a pirate.

If you like the Jolly Roger, you'll like some of the other songs by Roger McGuinn. In a previous post, I mentioned Roger McGuinn and have some songs from his folk song project.