{title: Barrett's Privateers}
{artist: Stan Rogers}
{album: Fogarty's Cove (1976)}
{key: D}
{tempo: 110}
{difficulty: beginner}
{tags: canadiana,stan-rogers,maritime,singalong}
{video: youtube:EyyseSXgsZQ}
{credit: Stan Rogers - 'Barrett's Privateers' (from Between the Breaks Live!, 1979). (c) Fogarty's Cove Music.}

{c: Stan's most-sung song. Written 1976, sounds 200 years old. SUNG A CAPPELLA traditionally — no instruments at all. The whole room joins on the chorus.}
{c: Lyrics copyright Fogarty's Cove Music. Chord skeleton below for if you DO want to play it on guitar (which Stan didn't, but kitchen parties do).}
{c: Full lyrics in Stan Rogers Songbook or by ear from the 1976 recording.}

{c: ===== STRUCTURE =====}
{c: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → ... (six verses total) → Final chorus}

{c: ===== VERSE PROGRESSION (in D) =====}
[D]________ [G]________ [D]________ [A]________
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________
[D]________ [G]________ [D]________ [Bm]________
[G]________ [D]________ [A]________ [D]________

{c: ===== CHORUS PROGRESSION =====}
{c: This is the singalong — everyone in the room joins.}
[D]________ [G]________ [D]________ [A]________
[D]________ [G]________ [A]________ [D]________

{c: ===== HOW IT'S TRADITIONALLY DONE =====}
{c: 1. ONE person starts, a cappella. Strong voice. They sing the verse alone.}
{c: 2. EVERYONE joins on the chorus. Pound the table on "God damn them all!" if you want.}
{c: 3. Keep going through all six verses. The story has a body count.}
{c: 4. Final line ("the last of Barrett's Privateers") — let it ring. Silence after.}

{c: ===== IF YOU'RE PLAYING IT WITH INSTRUMENTS =====}
{c: Strum: heavy, marching boom-chuck-chuck-chuck. Like a sea drum.}
{c: This is a HALYARD-style song — pull on every chord change.}
{c: Capo 2 if D is too low. Capo 4 puts it in F-shapes.}

{c: ===== THE STORY =====}
{c: Halifax sailor signs onto a privateer in 1778 to attack American shipping during the Revolution. Things go badly. He's the only one who comes home, and he's missing both legs. Stan Rogers wrote it as a parody of how romanticised sea songs lie about the cost of seafaring — then everyone took it deadly seriously and it became the most-sung Canadian shanty.}

{c: ===== WHY EVERYONE KNOWS IT =====}
{c: Standard at every Canadian folk session, every Newfoundland kitchen party, every Maritimes wedding. If you can sing one Stan Rogers song with a room full of strangers, this is it. The chorus is short, repetitive, and built for shouting. Learn it.}