Over the past few of years I've written a number of original sea shanties and songs. I had moved on to working on some other things when one day I was kind of inundated with news reports about the plight of Flint, Michigan (USA) and their poisoned public water supply, and the doings of various candidates for Leader of the Free World, and several of their corporate owners. For some reason, this reminded me that my nautical songs thus far did not include a pirate song. I felt it was high time.

Via Project Gutenberg, I've read several historical accounts of the famous 17th and 18th century pirates that people have since romanticized. But according to history, these people were NOT nice people at all. They were monster egos driven by greed, with total disregard for anyone but themselves and perhaps a few "friends", so far as those served their interests. In short, I understood that nothing has fundamentally changed, except that the top pirates today are found in boardrooms and the halls of government, rather than sailing ships.

With Campaign 2016 set squander its final millions, I thought that a pirate song that focuses on the nastiness rather than the romance seemed appropriate. But you know - I think those guys still came out smelling like a rose!