The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #105231 Message #2201799
Posted By: Mysha
25-Nov-07 - 10:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Ballad of John Silver, A (John Masefield)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of John Silver, A (Masefield)
Hi Charley,
Sure, the writer and Long John Silver would be ironic using those words. And now that you mentioned it, I do think "pretty colours" works much better than "dearsome colours". I had no intention of changing those; I just took them from your last post above mine, so you'd better check your working copy to see if it does say "pretty" there.
"Pretty pranks", as you can see I didn't touch either. My problem with the quiet hornpipe verse is not the "quiet", but the verse. If John were bragging with his mates: "I remember one time we had this skooner-rigged ...", I don't think he's going to talk at length about having nothing to do but dance a hornpipe. That's not to say he couldn't talk about that, but the context would be quite different, more a few-excuses-made story of his life.
Now, the tune I didn't mention, as you wrote that was pretty much certain. But if you speed it up a bit, you could use the first verse as the chorus. Especially the she-version, given a bit more major key, could be set against the we of the other verses.
But whatever you do, drop the Jolly Roger line; in this context it just doesn't fit.
Mysha