Song: "Rachel Wall's Last Good-Night"
So, I a song. Rachel Wall's Last Good-Night. I've been meaning to post this since I wrote it in October 2016; now is as good a time as any. The words are mine. The tune is my adaptation of "The Bold Solder" tune sung by Lena Bourne Fish in the Anne and Frank Warner Collection.
From my Soundcloud entry:
Rachel Wall was hanged at Boston, on October 8, 1789, aged about twenty-nine. Find more details here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Wall
Also here: www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/rachel-…pirate/
If anyone wants to sing this anywhere at any time, you have my blessing. No permission needed. Just go wild and do it however you please. Attribution is nice but not mandatory. I have this wide-eyed dream of hearing my own songs come back to me one day as "folksongs" with no known author.
Lyrics:
A-serving in Boston, I never was content
Until to marry James Wall I gave my consent.
With five sailors and their lovers, to piracy we went,
And for my offense I must die.
We beached our old vessel by the Isles of Shoals,
Crying, "Oh, Lord have mercy on us poor shipwrecked souls,
Our ship it is staved in and the bottom full of holes..."
And for my offense I must die.
Men saw me a-crying and tearing of my hair,
They quickly then landed to relieve my despair,
Their lives we did destroy and their gold and goods did share,
And for my offense I must die.
We sank thirty vessels all in the Gulf of Maine,
And food and drink and fine array in New York we did attain,
Then back to sea again another goodly ship to gain,
And for my offense I must die.
We met with a hurricane while cruising for our fee,
And that's the last of James Wall the world will ever see,
For the waves they roared across our deck and drowned them all but me,
And for my offense I must die.
On India Wharf, with a maiden I did meet,
I struck her in the face, and I knocked her off her feet,
And with her purse and bonnet I went running up the street,
And for my offense I must die.
They'll hang me as a thief on the Common tonight.
As a free prince of the ocean I should hang in public sight.
Hang me as a pirate, for you know that is my right,
And for my offense I must die.
From my Soundcloud entry:
Rachel Wall was hanged at Boston, on October 8, 1789, aged about twenty-nine. Find more details here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Wall
Also here: www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/rachel-…pirate/
If anyone wants to sing this anywhere at any time, you have my blessing. No permission needed. Just go wild and do it however you please. Attribution is nice but not mandatory. I have this wide-eyed dream of hearing my own songs come back to me one day as "folksongs" with no known author.
Lyrics:
A-serving in Boston, I never was content
Until to marry James Wall I gave my consent.
With five sailors and their lovers, to piracy we went,
And for my offense I must die.
We beached our old vessel by the Isles of Shoals,
Crying, "Oh, Lord have mercy on us poor shipwrecked souls,
Our ship it is staved in and the bottom full of holes..."
And for my offense I must die.
Men saw me a-crying and tearing of my hair,
They quickly then landed to relieve my despair,
Their lives we did destroy and their gold and goods did share,
And for my offense I must die.
We sank thirty vessels all in the Gulf of Maine,
And food and drink and fine array in New York we did attain,
Then back to sea again another goodly ship to gain,
And for my offense I must die.
We met with a hurricane while cruising for our fee,
And that's the last of James Wall the world will ever see,
For the waves they roared across our deck and drowned them all but me,
And for my offense I must die.
On India Wharf, with a maiden I did meet,
I struck her in the face, and I knocked her off her feet,
And with her purse and bonnet I went running up the street,
And for my offense I must die.
They'll hang me as a thief on the Common tonight.
As a free prince of the ocean I should hang in public sight.
Hang me as a pirate, for you know that is my right,
And for my offense I must die.