Seven C's

Wikkipedia says "The phrase "Seven Seas" (as in the idiom "sail the Seven Seas") can refer either to a particular set of seven seas or be used as an expression for all the world's oceans in general."

My singer-songwriter friend Ben Sage had another idea - words that begin with the letter C and highlight good values. He was inspired by my Rockin' Ron the Friendly Pirate character (and Captain Kangaroo) and he gave me a song idea. He sent along what would become the chorus and first verse of Seven C's. I changed some words here and there, added an intro and second verse, and I wrote the music. Let's let the lyrics do the talking...


VERSE:
Oh, to be a Friendly Pirate
You must know the Seven C’s
Seven words that we can live by
These seven, if you please

CHORUS:
There’s COURTESY, COMPASSION
And a bit of COURAGE too
With CLEANLINESS (swab), and CLEVERNESS
They’re good for me and you
Plus CHEERFULNESS and CHARITY,
Now that makes Seven C’s
They’ll never fail to help you sail
Through life quite merrily


But, I know how literal kids can be so I included seven bodies of water in the introduction, all of which are refered to as seas. They were chosen mainly for their poetic quality. They are: Caspian, Caribbean, Baltic and North, and, Black, Red and Dead.

So many seas, so little time. Its time for me to sail... SEA U LATER!

RRR vs. Arrgh

I consider three consecutive capital R’s to be one of my trademarks. It appears in several of my songs including the title track of my “Give Me an RRR!” CD. I was initially inspired by the pirate joke that I’ve heard more than any other: “why couldn’t the young pirate go to the movie… because it was rated… R (or arrgh as the phonetic equivalent)”. With my spelling, I wanted to set myself apart from other pirates, while at the same time opening up possibilities for usage of words with the ‘R’ sound in an educational and entertaining way. For instance: "Pirates navigate by the North... ?", "Pirates drink their grog from an old fruit... ?", "Pirates in a fight often get a... ?", and "Pirates like their feathers mixed with... ?".

If you would RRRgue for the traditional Arrgh, you would do well to refer to The Pirate Primer – Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues , where George Choundas dedicates a whole chapter to Arrgh.  He says the pronunciation of “arrgh” is “arrr” not “arg”. He also credits Robert Newton, famous for his depiction of Long John Silver in the 1950 version the Treasure Island, with popularizing the expression. In one movie, Newton said “arrgh” 50 times!

Which side RRR you on?