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  1. Stede Bonnet's Last Dream

From the recording Florida

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Steed Bonnet’s Last Dream - © 2018 Jim Bickerstaff
Terry Feller – Drums
Bob Wray – Bass
Clayton Ivey – Wurlitzer Piano
Pat Severs – Acoustic Guitar
Johnny B – Dobro
Savannah Bickerstaff & Landis Yarovyy – Background Vocals
Jim Bickerstaff – Vocals & Acoustic Guitar

Stede Bonnet's Last Dream came from some reading about Fernandina, the Spanish Main, and piracy along the Atlantic Coast. Bonnet caught my attention because he was a wealthy landowner in Barbados who just went nuts one day and decided to abandon his family for a life of piracy, a trade he knew nothing about. Rather than steal a ship like any self-respecting pirate of the day, "The Gentleman Pirate" purchased a vessel and bumbled his way into a hangman's noose less than two years later in Charleston, SC on December 10th of 1718.

Lyrics

Stede Bonnet’s Last Dream © 3/29/2018 j. Bickerstaff
V1
Now, as I stand here on these gallows, I'll die with few regrets
With a wilted bouquet of asylum, and the governor’s rope around my neck
Though good men have died on account of my calling, I'm accused of far more than I've killed.
A small price to pay for the buccaneer way, so hear my last words if you will.
V2
Some men are called to adventure and the labor of life on the sea
The freedom to go where prevailing winds blow, taking love where you find it to be
Watching dolphins chase light through the bow wave, southerly faithful they lead
To Barbados rum in my belly, and a young Spanish girl on my knee
Chorus
Amelia … stands watch by the river … on the north end of the old Spanish Main
Where there’s vermin and scum drinking whiskey and rum, and there’s nobody there feeling pain
More beautiful now than the first time I saw her, she beckons to me in my dreams
And though she's been comfort to many a sailor … Amelia is waiting on me
V3
If I could hoist up the mainsail and climb on the back of this Nor’east Cape Hatteras wind
Make full speed for old Fernandina, on a run for safe harbor again
I can almost hear the breakers on Cumberland Island, eyes closed while I say my last prayer
I’ll be praying I make it around that old north jetty, to find Amelia waiting there
Chorus
She’ll always be waiting on me