Music Chatter: barretts privateers men they couldn't hang stan rogers weddings parties anything
by Matthew
6 comments
Toad 2.0
Barrett’s Privateers
I’ve just recently heard a couple of versions of an old folk song called Barrett’s Privateers, and neither quite captured my imagination. Two groups I know – The Men They Couldn’t Hang, whom I love, and the now defunct Australian band Weddings, Parties, Anything, whom I quite like – have covered the song, and presumably there are countless more. Neither recording really captures the experience I once had hearing it live, and both are live recordings themselves.
The first time I actually heard the song was when The Men They Couldn’t Hang performed it at King Tut’s in Glasgow back in about 1995. They, as is generally the way, sung it entirely unaccompanied (acapella just sounds a bit gay, I can’t call it that) and it was absolutely spine-tingling.
The song itself was written by Canadian Stan Rogers back in the 70s and tells a pretty convincing tale of a young man lured away to the sea and piracy, only to end up broken and crippled at the age of twenty-two after a brief and disastrous expedition to plunder American trading vessels in the Carribean. The venom with which the Men They Couldn’t Hang snarled it out brought the bitterness of the song vivdily to life in a way, I suppose, that a studio recording would find it nigh on impossible to capture.
Their live recording isn’t bad, it must be said, but hearing it live was something else. Have a listen and see if you can quite imagine what I mean:
The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Barrett’s Privateers
Weddings, Parties, Anything – Barrett’s Privateers
Now, you see, there’s something about this sort of stuff that just doesn’t sit right with me.
I like a bit fiddly-diddly-dee probably more than the average punter, and I’m a fan of The Men they Couldn’t Hang (not familiar with Weddings, Parties, Anything, although the distinctive name is ringing a bell somewhere.)
I think my problem is that this is a new song (relatively – 1970s as opposed to 1770s) written in an old style. It’s something of a facsimile.
I’m reminded of Phil Collins writing Two Hearts in a contrived 1960s Motown-esque style. Collins’ excuse being that the song was written for a movie set in that era.
Equally, I’m sure that Stan Rogers is fascinated with the era of tall ships and sea shanties, but I’m not sure that the canon of traditional folk songs needs bolstering in this way.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I can’t escape the notion that the songwriter is writing from vastly outside his own experience, and for that it just doesn’t ring true for me.
The Wee Rogue and Randan Discotheque actually do a cover of this song at live shows. I had always assumed it was a Scottish folk song, as they adapt the lyrics to include ‘Edinburgh’ (I suspect this comes from the Corrie’s version of the song).
They don’t do it a cappella though – perhaps from fear of people surmising they were homosexual.
Wow, great tributes I have loved the song for years but was not aware of those versions. I am Canadian and I live in the U.S. and my American born 7 year old son loves that song and others by Rogers (Northwest Passage a big one too). He goes to sleep listening to it on his ipod singing the lyrics out loud. His mother is always a bit put off when he comes to the ‘god damn them all’ part but I love it, its all art and just little subversive for him to sing such a passionate Canadian nationalist song in the flag loving mid west.
For those who don’t know, Stan Rogers died at the age of 35 (I think in 1980) when his Air Canada plane bound for that ‘Halifax Pier’ caught fire on the runway at the Cincinnati, OH airport. A tragic loss and a horrible death. Someone needs to write his song now.
Doug
Barrett’s Privateers is one of my favourite songs. I’d love to hear the 2 versions but the links are broken. Can you see if they can be fixed.
I saw both Weddings, Parties, Anything and The Men They Couldn’t Hang together at Mariposa Folk Festival in Barrie, Ontario back in I think 1984. It was both bands first time in Canada and was an amazing performance. It was in a outdoor tent and was packed. We sat right in front of the stage and were blown away. I’ve been a fan ever since.
Not broken, removed. I take everything down after a month or so. I don’t want to become some sort of online mp3 library, partly for legal reasons and partly because I couldn’t afford the bandwidth. I’ll email you.
Nice covers! I posted a bit more about the same song over at collaborative music blog Star Maker Machine a few weeks ago, for our Boats theme week; tracks there include an acapella/unaccompanied live version of the song from Rogers and company, and a great John Gorka cover of another Stan Rogers song.