Sometimes I need to at least try to be original (because I want to stand out from the crowd), but sometimes a strong back-reference is really useful.

Case in point is "Gentle Maids Ashore," about Ann Bonney and Mary Read* who met as 'male' pirates and fell in love.

I wanted to refer to various well-known cross-dressing songs, so borrowed a number of musical and lyrical phrases, but I hope the song still comes over as original.

If you're interested you can decide for yourself at Tom Bliss @ MySpace
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* It took me about 18 months from research to completion (yes, I know - I like my songs to mature :-) and all that time I never knew that my old mate HipHipMcAndyHoorayFarlane writing a song about Mary as well.