Hoist the Colours

"Hoist the Colours" is a song in the feature film "" from the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. It was composed by Hans Zimmer and Gore Verbinski, and it featured lyrics by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. It appears as track one on the , at 1:31 in length. The melody is used as a theme throughout the film, and fulfills a tradition in the trilogy that every film contains a pirate song.

Role in Film

This song was sung in the opening scene of the movie, wherein a young cabin boy associated with piracy sang it while waiting to be hanged. All the prisoners then started to join in the singing. It is then reprised by Elizabeth Swann when she enters the Singapore waterways via canoe to meet with Barbossa.

In the film, "Hoist the Colours" is known among all the pirates of the world and refers to what occurred at the first meeting of the Brethren Court. The song spreads the message throughout the Pirate world that a meeting of the "Brethren Court" must be called. The song seems to somehow resonate through pieces of eight, as seen when Sao Feng holds a piece of eight by his ear when Barbossa gave it to him. It refers to the binding of Calypso in human form by the Brethren Court in order to control her domain. In the opening scene the boy sings "the king and his men" meaning the pirate king and his men "stole the queen from her bed, and bound her in her bones" trap the queen of the sea, Calypso, and bind her in Tia Dalma's body. "The seas be ours, and by the powers, where we will, we'll roam" the sea belongs to man now.

When Elizabeth sings in Singapore, she sings of men living and those who are dead and some who 'sail on the sea' referring to the pirate lords and their whereabouts. She sings of 'keys to the cage' (the nine pieces of eight that will free Calypso from her body) and a 'devil to pay' (Davy Jones told the pirates how to bind Calypso, and presumably had his price). 'Fiddler's Green' is a legendary, blissful place to which the pirates refer, where they could escape from the world's problems. (Traditionally, it is the afterlife found by drowned sailors.) She then starts another verse about a bell raised from its 'watery grave' (the song that calls the Brethren Court) urging the pirates to listen and turn 'their sails to home' (calling the pirate lords to Shipwreck Cove).

The melody of the song's chorus is incorporated in a number of musical pieces played throughout the film, including a full orchestral version played during the climactic battle between the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl.

External links

* [http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Hoist_the_Colours_%28song%29 "Hoist the Colours" at the Pirates of the Caribbean wiki]