Lyrics to
A Pirate Looks At Forty

This version of A Pirate Looks At Forty was released by Jimmy Buffett in 1974.

Our About Jimmy Buffett page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for A Pirate Looks At Forty from 1974 as well as all of the other lyrics from Jimmy Buffett that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jimmy Buffett or about the 1970s in general.

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call,
Wanted to sail upon your waters
since I was three feet tall.
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it all.

Watch 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 dreams.

Yes, 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 late.

I’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 last.

I 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 friends.

I 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 occupations
just not around.
I feel like I’ve drowned,
Gonna head uptown.

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Jimmy Buffett has released many songs over the years besides A Pirate Looks At Forty. Jimmy Buffett released songs from 1970 to 2004 spanning across albums like Down To Earth, High Cumberland Jubilee, A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean, A1A, Living And Dying In 3/4 Time, Havana Daydreamin', Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, Son Of A Son Of A Sailor, Volcano, Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, One Particular Harbour, Riddles In The Sand, Last Mango In Paris, Floridays, Hot Water, Off To See The Lizard, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, Fruitcakes, Barometer Soup, Christmas Island, Banana Wind, Beach House On The Moon, Far Side Of The World, and License To Chill. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jimmy Buffett.

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About Lyrics and A Pirate Looks At Forty by Jimmy Buffett

The lyrics for A Pirate Looks At Forty are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1974 song by Jimmy Buffett. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to A Pirate Looks At Forty have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for A Pirate Looks At Forty - Jimmy Buffett and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to A Pirate Looks At Forty by Jimmy Buffett in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to A Pirate Looks At Forty" means the words set to the music of A Pirate Looks At Forty, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jimmy Buffett. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to A Pirate Looks At Forty and the lyrics to A Pirate Looks At Forty are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jimmy Buffett who came here looking just for the lyrics to A Pirate Looks At Forty, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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