> Steeleye Span > Songs > The Black Freighter

The Black Freighter / Pirate Jenny

[ Roud - ; words Bertolt Brecht, music Kurt Weill]

This is a stark song from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera.

Isla Cameron sang Pirate Jenny in 1966 on her eponymous Transatlantic album, Isla Cameron.

Judy Colliny sang Pirate Jenny in 1966 too on her Elektro album In My Life.

Steeleye Span recorded The Black Freighter in 1977 for their tenth album Storm Force Ten and on their subsequent farewell live album Live at Last!.

Lyrics

Steeleye Span sing The Black Freighter

You gentlemen can gawk while I’m scrubbing the floor,
And I’m scrubbing the floors while you’re gawking,
And maybe once you’ve tipped me and it made you fell swell,
In this ratty waterfront in this ratty hotel;
But you never know to whom you’re talking,
You never guess to whom you’re talking.
Suddenly one night there’s a scream in the night
And you yell, “What the hell is that din?”
And you see me kind of grinning while I’m scrubbing,
And you’ll say, “What’s she got to grin?”

And the ship the Black Freighter
With the skull at her masthead
Sails into the bay

Then you gentlemen can say, “Hey girl, scrub the floors,
Make the beds, get up stairs, earn you keep here.”
And you pass out the tips as you look out at the ships.
But I’m counting up heads as I’m making up beds,
’Cause tonight none of you will sleep here,
Tonight none of you will sleep here.
Then on that night there’s a banging in the night,
And you yell, “What the hell is that row?”
And you see me kind of staring out the window,
And you’ll say, “What’s she got to stare at now?”

And the ship the Black Freighter
With fifty long cannons
Opens fire on the town

Then you gentlemen can wipe all the grins off your face,
Every building in the town is a flat one,
The whole stinking place will be down to the ground,
Only this cheap hotel will be standing safe and sound
And you’ll say, “Why do they spare that one?”
You’ll say, “Why do they spare that one?”
Then all night through with the noise and to-do
You’ll wonder who’s the person lives up there,
And you see me stepping out into the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair.

And the ship the Black Freighter
Runs a flag up her masthead
And a cheer rings the air

Then just before noon there’ll be hundreds of men
Coming up off that ghostly freighter,
And they’re moving in the shadows where no-one can see,
And they’re chaining up the people and they’re bringing them to me
Asking me, “Kill them now or later?”
Asking me, “Kill them now or later?”
Noon on the clock and so still on the dock,
You could hear a foghorn miles away.
In the quiet of death I’ll say, “Kill ’em now.”
And they’ll pile up the bodies and I’ll say, “Hoopla!”

And the ship the Black Freighter
Sails away out to sea
And on it is me