Chords for Black Sails - Singers of Sails

_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ I wanted the score to Black Sails [Gm] to feel like it was being performed by the crews of
these boats as they were working.
I knew that the main title would be the ideal place to
introduce the [Cm] idea of vocals in the Black Sails score, so I got together a pirate choir
to record my main title [G] melody.
You're kind of singing it, [F#] nah, nah, [G] nah.
It feels really natural to put a nah there.
I also want to hear that.
Nah, nah, [Cm] nah, nah.
What do you guys think?
I [F] was thinking it's like kind of a weird, it makes it a little weirder to not.
It sounds like a weird kind of Alice in Chains kind of_ It does.
[C#] Nah.
Historically speaking, I always like choirs to be singing text.
[B] In the case of Black Sails, there are no [Cm] lyrics.
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
Nah, nah, nah, nah, [G] nah, nah, nah.
I did that because I wanted it to feel very catchy and very simple.
I wanted it to feel like [C] guys that are out on the boat working and just singing some
tune that got [Cm] stuck in their head.
So it made the session a lot of fun.
I mean, working with [G] Doug and Brendan McCreary and Brendan Small was sort of a dream come
true since they're all some of my favorite singers and [G] favorite people to hang out with.
But being able to sing this wordless vocal meant that we didn't have to worry about the lyrics.
It was more like an acting session.
We were trying to capture the spirit of these characters.
We wanted to feel like pirates out on the high seas.
Let's just start layering some solo passes.
[Am] With, you know, maybe, especially you two [G] guys, with just some more personality.
Nah, [Cm] nah, [D] nah, nah, nah, [D#] nah, nah, nah, nah, [C] nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, [G] _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ nah, nah, nah, nah,
nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, [G#] nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,
[N] Oh my God, dude!
I can't believe you just did that!
Holy sh**.
[C#] Okay.
You want me to try it one more time?
If you want.
I was going to make you do it one more [D] time.
Yeah, make it sound totally improvised and loose, but also do it perfectly.
[F#] Okay, roll it.
Roll it.
[G#] No.
I mean, [C] honestly, I'm not sure how much that's going to [B] come through.
I'm not sure it'll come through either.
You know what I'll do sometimes?
[G] I don't know if you ever want to try this, but just to get [F] that chanty big thing.
It's almost like a whisper course on some of that thing.
So it's getting all those consonants the right [C#] time, you know?
With a gruff voice, that'll [G#] make it seem like even more people.
Yeah.
[B] I do that all the time with Shout Course.
Yeah.
[G]
Would you want to do that with the four of us?
Or is that like_ Yeah, maybe.
That would probably be helpful.
Can you give me an example of what you're talking [F#] about?
It'd be like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, [A#] nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
So I'll do like the low, like, Nathan [F#] voice.
Yeah.
All that stuff.
If that's what I'll [D] do, I'll get as much breath and almost sibilance as you can get on that thing.
[N] You add that to everything else, and all of a sudden it sounds like a football field of people.
Yeah. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [N] _
You know, we're doing that the whole time?
We've got to do [C] it again.
I was clenching my butt a lot. [D] Oh, okay.
I worked it out.
Yeah, that's the arch.
[Gm] Nah, nah, nah, nah, [C] nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, [C] nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,
You're also going to hear a lot of singing [G] in the source music that I wrote and arranged for the show.
Whether we're in the [C] tavern or we're deep inside the ship, there's always music playing.
[Am] It helps create the feeling that we're in a real world.
When you're [C] hearing a singer singing real sea shanties, that singer is Doug Lacey.
Well, there is a lofty ship that sails upon the sea.
The name [G] of the ship, the [C] Golden Vanity.
She fared [G] she'd be taken by a Spanish [Am] Galilee.
[F] As she sailed upon the land of the sea.
When I got this show, I knew I needed to call you [G] because [C] you have become the foremost expert on sea shanties and pirate [Am] songs.
[A] So how did this happen?
I started [E] working for Disney, and I did several different [C] little pirate things for them over the years.
And then finally, they [F] decided to have a four-month gig [G] where they're going to have pirates at the [Am] park,
doing sea shanties in this really stupid [B] script.
And within a couple months, we had thrown all that stuff [Dm] out and I brought in a bunch of new sea shanties.
Old sea shanties.
But authentic sea shanties.
Authentic shanties, and jigs and reels and stuff like [G] that.
But anyway, we've been there eight [A] years.
So the four-month gig turned into eight years.
[E] You told me once that you can play an eight-hour day at Disneyland playing pirate [E] shanties and not repeat a song.
We know enough songs now that we've played two days in a row and don't repeat songs.
Why [Am] do these songs, why [G] have they lasted this long?
And why do they last, you know, how is it that they've [G] kept that life?
These are the things that kept these guys going on these boats because it was just [Am] brutal, you know.
They were like basically slave labor.
A number of the [G] lyrics are actually quite [A] sad.
There's a lot of minor-ish songs, but some of [A] them that have, you know, [G] lyrics that if you listen to, you go,
oh, that's horrible, [C] you know.
Then the crew hauled him up, put [Am] on the deck he died.
They wrapped him in a blanket and so [C] very softly cried.
But it's like, it's really, you know, fun little [Am] lyric to sing, you know.
I guess it's, [C] it was, it kept the guys going.
Maybe it was [F] like comic relief almost.
Yeah, [D] it was a way to deal with the pain.
[Em] Vocal music truly was an essential [Am] part of pirate music tradition in real [F] life.
So it makes sense that vocals would play an essential role in the music of Black Sails.
And he [G] sank beneath the lowland, [F] lowland, low,
sank [G] beneath the lowland [C] sea. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D#] _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I don't think it's necessary to do that.
Oh, dude, that was so f***ing awesome.
We could make you do that all night, just for my enjoyment.
Oh, my God. _ _ _