Captain Kidd (song)

"The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (or simply, "Captain Kidd") is an English song about Captain William Kidd, who was executed for piracy in London on May 23, 1701.^[1] The song was printed in Britain in 1701, and it traveled to the colonies "almost immediately".^[2]

Washington Irving's 1824 work Tales of a Traveller makes mention of the song:

"There 's a fine old song about him, all to the tune of —

My name is Captain Kidd,

As I sailed, as I sailed—

And then it tells all about how he gained the Devil's good graces by burying the Bible :

I had the Bible in my hand,

As I sailed, as I sailed,

And I buried it in the sand

As I sailed. —

Selected recordings

"Captain Kidd" by Eddie Trinkett and Howie Mitchell on Golden Ring: A Gathering of Friends for Making Music, Folk-Legacy Records, 1964.
"Ye Jacobites by Name" by Owen Hand on I Loved a Lass, Transatlantic, 1966 (re-released with Something New on Pier Records, 1999).
"Captain Kidd" by Waterson:Carthy on Fishes and Fine Yellow Sand, Topic Records, 2004.
"Captain Kidd" by Tempest on The Double-Cross, Magna Carta Records, 2006.
"Sam Hall" by May Kennedy McCord, 1960, and by Roy "Wrinkle" Winkler, 1969, Max Hunter song collection.
"Captain Kidd" by Hughie Jones on Maritime Miscellany, Fellside Recordings.
"Captain Kidd" by Great Big Sea on The Hard and the Easy, Warner Music Canada, 2005.

In Mormonism

The song was reportedly a childhood favorite of Mormonism founder Joseph Smith.^[3] In 1830, the song was adapted into an official church hymn, retitled as "How Precious is the Name" and featuring new lyrics.^[3]

In popular culture

The song was adapted for the TV science fiction series The Expanse as "The Ballad of Captain Ashford", a song the character Klaes Ashford (played by David Strathairn) sings bits of throughout the fourth season (initially to his infant daughter; the last stanza as he's being put out an airlock to his death).

References

^ "The Ballad of Captain Kidd (traditional)". Cantaria Folk Song Archive. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014.
^ Kidd, David. "Captain Kidd Music". Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.
^ ^a ^b Huggins, Ronald V. (2003). "From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 36 (4).

Bibliography

Bonner, Willard Hallam (January 1944). "The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (PDF). American Literature. 15 (4): 362–380. ISSN 0002-9831.
Jackson, George Pullen (1951). "The 400-Year Journey of the 'Captain Kidd' Song Family--Notably Its Religious Branch". Southern Folklore Quarterly. 15: 239–248. ISSN 0038-4127.

External links

Great Big Sea (4 March 2011). "Captain Kidd". YouTube.
"Captain Kidd (Shanty version from Ubisoft's game "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag")". YouTube. 29 November 2014.
Schoenherr, Ian (19 September 2013). "The Song of Captain Kidd". Howard Pyle.
"Ashford's Song". Reddit. 30 December 2019.

[1] "The Ballad of Captain Kidd (traditional)". Cantaria Folk Song Archive. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014.

[2] Kidd, David. "Captain Kidd Music". Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.

[dialogue-3] Huggins, Ronald V. (2003). "From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 36 (4).

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