Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood
Here we take a look at Dylan and Baez’ performance at Peace Sunday, June 6, 1982
Whilst not the last time they appeared on stage together… Joan Baez joined Bob for two songs in Germany in 1984… Hamburg 5/31/84 and Munich 6/2/84. They sang “Blowin’ In The Wind” at both shows plus “I Shall Be Released” at Hamburg.
They also both performed separately at Live Aid in 1985 and were both onstage for The We Are The World finale… but I think Bob scuttled off pretty quickly.
Then they were also both on the same bill at Fleadh Mor festival in 1993 (Waterford, Ireland) but did not perform together.
But going back to Peace Sunday…the set list is
- Blowin In The Wind
- With God On Our Side
- A Pirate Looks At Forty
The question would be…why would Dylan/Baez choose that last song in what is a very short set… It’s a Jimmy Buffett song from 1974… Apparently its part of his “Big 8”..ie the list of songs he has performed at almost every concert. But it’s a very strange choice, right?
https://youtu.be/5ODo23TnVQs
There is something wonderful about the way Bob and Joan will perform in front of these vast crowds, and the two of them have not particularly practised the song together. The instruction is clearly – “I’ll start and you join in when you can”.
The lyrics below are those published elsewhere for this song, but I (Tony) am not convinced they are 100% what Bob and Joan sing. There’s also a moment where Bob goes off track with the lyrics too (so it’s not all me).
Wanted to sail upon your waters
Since I was three feet tall
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it allWatch the men who rode you
Switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasure
That few have ever seen, most of them dreams
Most of them dreamsYes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder there’s nothin’ to plunder
I’m an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too lateI’ve done a bit of smugglin’
I’ve run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami
But I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to lastI have been drunk now for over two weeks
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks
But I’ve got to stop wishin’
Got to go fishin’, I’m down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friendsI go for younger women, lived with several awhile
And though I ran away, they’ll come back one day
And still could manage a smile
It just takes awhile, just takes awhile
Mother, mother ocean, after all these years I’ve found
My occupational hazard being my occupation’s just not around
I feel like I’ve drowned
Gonna head uptown
A footnote from Tony: This is one of those songs which once you have performed it, there just seems to be an incredible urge to sing it again. It’s impossible to describe what it is in songs like these, but something within the music and lyrics carries the performer (amateur or professional) back to another world. You sing, you play, you are there. I suspect this is why Bob and Joan performed it. They felt that special something with this song.
Some songs are intellectual – the message is in the lyrics, you understand them in your head. I’d argue “God on our side” is one such. But some songs like A Pirate are just pure emotion (at least when one performs them). Lines like “I feel like I’ve drowned” after the two lines that have come before, puts one inside the pirate’s mind. One is there, one feels what he feels at where his life has left him, and how the past has gone.
I hear it, I feel it.
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“The question would be…why would Dylan/Baez choose that last song.”
Well, there’s the fact they had both turned forty the year before.
thanx again for your special service
The selection of “A Pirate Looks At 40” was Dylan’s idea, according to an interview Baez did in the April 14, 1983 issue of Rolling Stone:
Rolling Stone: You and Dylan reunited on stage at a Peace Week concert in Los Angeles last June. What state of mind did he seem to be in?
Baez: I really have no idea. But I love singing with him. He isn’t in tune, the phrasing is nuts, and he always wants to do a song I’ve never heard before. This time he read it off his arm, and he couldn’t see. I begged him to do something we knew, but he wanted to do this Jimmy Buffett tune, “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” He scribbled it all over his wrist, and then forgot to take his jacket off. It’s always an interesting happening when Bob appears.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/joan-baez-the-rolling-stone-interview-71113/
We are actively promoting a link to this interesting topic on The Bob Dylan Project at:
https://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/3226/A-Pirate-Looks-At-Forty
If you are interested, we are a portal to all the great information related to this topic.
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