"Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys" - Various Artists

Album

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Full Track Listing:

Disc One:

  • Cape Cod Girls – Baby Gramps (7:14)
  • Mingulay Boat Song – Richard Thompson (4:13)
  • My Son John – John C. Reilly (1:38)
  • Fire Down Below – Nick Cave (2:50)
  • Turkish Revelry – Loudon Wainwright III (4:21)
  • Bully in the Alley – Three Pruned Men (2:30)
  • The Cruel Ship’s Captain – Bryan Ferry (3:35)
  • Dead Horse – Robin Holcomb (2:54)
  • Spanish Ladies – Bill Frisell (2:22)
  • Coast of High Barbary – Joseph Arthur (4:02)
  • Haul Away Joe – Mark Anthony Thompson (4:10)
  • Dan Dan – David Thomas (0:50)
  • Blood Red Roses – Sting (2:44)
  • Sally Brown – Teddy Thompson (2:54)
  • Lowlands Away – Rufus Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle (3:25)
  • Baltimore Whores – Gavin Friday (4:40)
  • Rolling Sea – Eliza Carthy (4:49)
  • The Mermaid – Martin Carthy and the UK Group (2:23)
  • Haul on the Bowline – Bob Neurirth (1:29)
  • A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates – Bono (4:44)
  • Bonnie Portmore – Lucinda Williams (3:36)
  • Shenandoah – Richard Greene and Jack Shit (2:58)
  • The Cry of Man – Mary Margaret O’Hara (3:06)

Disc Two:

  • Boney was a Warrior – Jack Shit (1:55)
  • Good Ship Venus – Loudon Wainwright III (3:15)
  • Long Time Ago – White Magic (2:35)
  • Pinery Boy – Nic Cave (3:15)
  • Lowlands Low – Bryan Ferry with Antony (2:35)
  • One Spring Morning – Akron / Family (5:25)
  • Hog-Eye Man – Martin Carthy and Family (2:44)
  • The Fiddler – Ricky Jay and Richard Greene (1:34)
  • Caroline and Her Sailor Bold – Andrea Corr (3:58)
  • Fathom the Bowl – John C. Reilly (3:44)
  • What Do We do with a Drunken Sailor – David Thomas (3:44)
  • Farewell Nancy – Ed Harcourt (6:06)
  • Hanging Johnny – Stan Ridgeway (3:28)
  • Old Man of the Sea – Baby Gramps (5:18)
  • Greenland Whale Fisheries – Van Dyke Parks (4:41)
  • Shallow Brown – Sting (2:30)
  • The Grey Funnel Line – Jolie Holland (4:53)
  • A Drop of Nelson’s Blood – Jarvis Cocker (7:10)
  • Leave Her Johnny – Lou Reed (5:30)
  • Little Boy Billie – Ralph Steadman (5:33)

Background Information

The idea for the “Rogue’s Gallery” album came about when Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp were working on their second film together, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”. “I slowly became fascinated by the idea of a contemporary reinterpretation of the sea chantey,” explains Verbinski. “I imagined the artists that I listen to and respect doing their take on this age-old music: the song of the sea.” Verbinski and Depp met with Anti Records owner, Brett Gurewitz, and put together a list of artists they planned to approach. Hal Wilner became the “captain of the vessel” and approached many artists he had worked with previously to be involved in the record.

Wilner discussed the recording of the album: “We were just crawling around, just seeing who was around,” he explains. “The Akron/Family was rehearsing, so we recorded them. And then we found Baby Gramps. And that’s kind of how we worked all over. We’d go up to London or Dublin or to New York and L.A., with just a sketch and one or two things planned. And then we got on the phone. Most of the time people just came into the studio. We picked a song, and they went for it. Basically there were a number of house bands: one in London, one in Dublin, one in New York, two separate ones in L.A., one in Seattle. We would camp and people would come in and leave or join in for the whole day. One day we did eight songs with eight different artists. Two of those artists didn’t know they were going to be in the studio that day. I just loved working this way because you wouldn’t do that with an artist normally.”

From the liner notes, Bono’s song is “A haunting ballad of the 19th century whaling ships. As well as being musical, sailors often displayed great poetic ability, as in the lyrics of this powerful song.” The song was recorded in Dublin, and the song was “A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates”. Other artists recording in Dublin and appearing on the album are frequent U2 collaborators, Andrea Corr and Gavin Friday. Gavin appears solo, and also with two other former members of the Virgin Prunes, Guggi and Dave-Id as “Three Pruned Men”. The Virgin Prunes were a band that started along side U2, and were made up of close friends of the band. Gavin Friday was the front man for the Virgin Prunes.

An additional 17 tracks were recorded and did not make the album. It was said that these would hopefully be released on a sequel disc, but to date this has not appeared. It is not known whether Bono was involved in any of those additional tracks.

Liner Notes

A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates:
Bono – Vocals. Mauice Seezer – Accordian. Recorded in Dublin, Ireland at Westland Studio – Engineered by Dave Slevin, assisted by Amy Connolly. Jenny Sheinman – violin, string arrangement; Johnny Gandelsman – violin; Nicolas Cords – viola; Eric Jacobsen – cello. Strings recorded in New York at John Kilgore Sound and Recording. Engineered by Martin Brumbach and John Kilgore. Assisted by Saichiro Migita.

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