Hoist the Colours

[igenlode]

Watch on YouTube

Voiceplay meets Pirates of the Caribbean (and 'breaks the reactors', apparently -- I didn't even know 'reactors' were a thing until I saw the comments, but I suppose it makes as much sense as YouTube channels consisting of people watching other people play computer games :-p And some of those reactions are definitely entertaining...)

Comments

[igenlode]

I thought that might appeal to you in particular :p

(Now I've got that song stuck in my head, and I didn't even particularly *like* it in the film...)

[betweensunandmoon]

Awww, you're so thoughtful. :)

[capri0mni]

It's definitely a "land-lubber's" song -- a bunch of nautical-sounding phrases strung together that don't really make sense if you think about them too hard. But that's fitting for a Hollywood fantasy with a pirate aesthetic.

But performed well, it has an effective vibe, even if no-one would confuse it with a real Fo'c'stle shanty.

And this is performed well. I liked how the singers traded off the lead in the middle of lines, and did it seamlessly. And I'm a sucker for polyphonic harmonies.

[igenlode]

Now that you mention it, it's not even that nautical -- beyond the single 'hoist the colours' line ( and 'lay [a course] to Fiddler's Green').
And of course no real-life shanty would feature the refrain "yo ho" :-)

I think it's in one of the early Hornblower novels when C.S.Forester has his tone-deaf protagonist comment on how unseamanlike the lyrics of the popular 'sea songs' actually are, and how the sailors singing them would never tolerate any such situation in real life! (He's quoting "Tom Bowling" or "Hearts of Oak" or something of that ilk composed for parlour performance...)