--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote: > > To lay with pretty women > To drink Madeira wine > To hear the roller's thunder on a shore that isn't mine > > Privateering, we will go > Privateering, yo! ho! ho! > Privateering, we will go > Yeah, oh! ho! ho! > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24>
I always liked this song. It captures the FUN aspect of being a privateer -- a pirate. Privateers were necessary evils back in the day. Countries like Britain and Spain didn't have the money to back the kind of endless wars they liked to fight, so they "contracted out" the warfare to privateers, who were commissioned by the various kings to sink the ships of the country they were at war with. Good deal for the kings, good deal for the privateers -- they got to keep all the booty. Mark wrote this song with the life of a rock 'n roll artist in mind. The cover of the album (not released until recently in the US because of contract disputes) shows an old battered van used by a rock band to ferry them back and forth between gigs. He identified with the privateer lifestyle. Me, whenever I hear the song, I think about other work that is "contracted out," for example, to me. I've worked as a contractor since 1983. Haven't been an employee of a company in all of that time. Pirate. And it's been FUN. Sure, you miss the supposed security of having a "permanent job," but anyone reading the headlines knows that no job is permanent. Besides, like Mark's privateers, the life of a contractor gives you the opportunity to see the world. Companies willing to "contract out" their dirty work to me have enabled me to live in LA, Malibu, Palo Alto, New York City, Pound Ridge, NY, Hartford, CT, Boston, Santa Fe, Paris, the south of France, Spain, Holland, and now Paris again. Good for them. Because all of these places (well, Hartford kinda sucked) were pretty COOL, each in their own ways, and I really enjoyed being able to live there. Currently such a company is paying for me to sit in this sidewalk cafe in Paris and rap about the joys of piracy. Good for them. Arrrrr.
