By Carlo Ritchie
So I’ll paint my sails red, and I’ll sail out to sea
And I don’t care who they send to subjugate me
With my axe I’ll avenge on this patriarchy
On those took my lover away from me
Oh my name is De Clisson, no sailor am I
But away ‘cross the waves I am forced now to fly
For the king to whom faithful I once bent my knee
Has taken my lover away from me
So I’ll paint my sails red, and I’ll sail out to sea…
Now boys look on the ramparts, your father’s up there
Or his head is at least and his body’s somewhere
Though your eyes fill with pity, my own fill with rage
We will have our vengeance, I swear it this day
So I’ll paint my sails red, and I’ll sail out to sea…
So the French call me ‘traitor’, that England is ‘home’
Though I fight for myself, I am no one’s to own
‘long this small stretch of coastline, shall my ship sail free
A nightmare before whom the French will soon flee
So I’ll paint my sails red, and I’ll sail out to sea…
Oh my name is De Clisson, a pirate am I
And as mother and matriarch proudly I’ll die
And those men who so bravely, besmirch’d my name
So quickly turn cowards out here on the main
So I’ll paint my sails red, and I’ll sail out to sea…
