When you run out of ideas to get from Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, the solution is the original, canon form of Pirates, not another Lego game.
The Black Pearl Crew are my fan adaptations of certain protagonists from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the driving personification behind my parodies. They are close imaginary friends of mine, embodying my methods of improving my works.
The Crew started out as novelty thoughts that came in alongside the endless repetition by their LEGO counterparts, whom I had been using as their predecessors known as the Comic Five. When it came to parodying, the first manifestation of the Crew was the idea that I should do away with the Comic Five restriction that only songs my readers had already known for years could be parodied. Their voice of reason pointed out that these early Styx albums I was exploring were easy to memorize.
Then there was Man in the Wilderness. The line Sometimes it makes no sense
was the first of many lyrics to strike me as something I could work with, rather than simply changing words for the sake of it as the Five did. These two realizations marked the onset of the gradual decline of the parodying ways of the Five. Where they wavered, the Crew took their place.
The first parodies to carry the tinge of the Crew were Squiddy Haze
and Degrade
in late September 2013. About a month later, there came The Hat’s Blue
and finally a parody album of The Grand Illusion. The Five were ever present, however, and it was not until I got started on Cornerstone around the end of the following January that the crew brought the first parody to appear in my strip that had no trace of Comic Five influence, Blights.
Later in the same album, the Crew started the important development of the pleasant parody with Apple Delivery.
This parody style would not truly be returned to until the Five were gone, however.
The dual influences of the Crew and the Five went on for the rest of Cornerstone, and for two more albums, Pieces of Eight and Equinox. The two of them bounced around each other, with the Crew being quietly practical while the Five were not so much. The Crew did not care that there was a pipe organ in a song off the former album by the title of I’m O.K., but that just left the way open for the Five to make a kerfluffle over it, demanding I parody it as soon as I was ready for reasons that, in hindsight, were frankly nonsensical. With the latter album, I reduced the Comic Five influence even more by writing the parody album outside the strip at first, meaning no tie-ins to recent fan-fictitious events could be included. Consequently, the influence the Five had on my parodies was relatively minor at that point.
And it ended there.
When I got Styx II, I found one more song of pipe organ-ridden rock: Father O.S.A. Once everyone had heard the album over the weekend, the Five sort of declared war on the song, demanding it be played for everyone at once every day of the week so they could give it their idea of improving it as soon as possible.
I obliged, but I had the last straw with them after a few days. They ignored what suited what, but this was a situation where they could not make me do the same no matter how hard they tried. Given the prominent character of Bootstrap Bill, it was clear to me the whole time that father
would not have to change. Also, the music behind most of the lyrics suited the time and place the Crew came from quite well. And then to top it all off, one of my readers recognized You’ll sail eternally
as a lyric that could be manipulated.
Truly, the Five, and therefore I, had been obsessing over the wrong details. It would be years before I came up with the terminology to say this, but what I had on my plate was the definition of a 5-fodder song, and it was a message saying it was time for me to pick a side, as the Crew loved it and the Five, needless to say, hated it.
Of course, I chose the characters who were clearly more pleasant, and closer to agreeing with me - not to mention they were the ones who wrote things I could share with more people than just the readers I already had. Realizing that the parodies should not be inspired by the strip, but the other way around, I not coincidentally had the characters in my strip start hearing from Bootstrap Bill that week, even if the fact that it was related to the song the week was dedicated to memorizing completely escaped my readers at first.
Upon turning back to the rest of the album, the trend had been set - the parodies were all going to be accessible to anyone familiar with Pirates of the Caribbean from here on out. Now that the pressures from the Comic Five to get all heavy-handed about being funny and opposing the crew of the Flying Dutchman were gone, the Crew were free to be themselves, which they made a fine example of in The Pearl Will Sail In.
They have continued to do so in parodies including Back to Tortuga,
Caribbean Wild Wind,
Hey Matey,
and several others.
Not a lot is left to say after the takeover. Styx II marked my decision of what I wanted my parodies to be once and for all, and my methods have changed little since then. However, my parodying history would not be complete without mentioning some more firsts.
The Comic Five made it seem like the crew of the Dutchman were the only enemies of the pirates. In December 2014, Monster in Blue
reminded us that this is not true. In August 2015, My Time
corrected this further by bringing in the Navy.
Since 2018, there has been movement away from parody albums and toward doing individual songs.
And now, there is an alternative to the Crew.
Being a fan adaptation, the Black Pearl Crew do not necessarily agree completely with their officially canon counterparts. However, there are certainly similarities seen in the parodies. Like Jack Sparrow, they do not take things too seriously, and shrug off the enemy with a certain expectation that everything will be all right in the end (though care is taken to ensure that they do not belittle the enemy like the Comic Five did). Other hints of character personalities known from the films appear as well, though the Crew are cautious of potentially reducing the flexibility of a parody by making exactly who is singing it important, and therefore prefer to let themselves blend together into a collective personality.
There are, obviously, things I find appealing about them. To say they are friendlier and easier to please than their predecessors is an understatement, and, mostly because of that, the Crew have become my firm imaginary friends.
One important philosophy of creativity the Crew and I have agreed on is that any reduction of how widely or easily the work could be understood is a sacrifice and therefore should happen for a reason. For example, when reading a Crew parody, knowing the original song helps, but the parodies are written to be at least somewhat entertaining regardless. Moreover, to keep potential audiences reasonably large, the Pirates of the Caribbean films are the only topical thing the parodies may require familiarity with.
I have worked on the idea of the Crew as a band to decide who does what. The general idea is this:
I first started figuring this out when parodying the Styx albums Kilroy Was Here and Paradise Theatre. I decided which character should sing which parodies based on who sang the original song. I gave Will the equivalencies of Dennis DeYoung, Jack the equivalencies of Tommy Shaw, and Barbossa the equivalencies of James Young. From there, I would also decide to have them play the corresponding instruments of said Styx members. (It also was certainly fitting to have Jack take the lead on vocals and guitar when doing the Green Day parodies - he has the eyeliner and everything.)
Later, when it came to deciding who should be the drummer and the bassist, I gave Elizabeth, who is a lot younger and probably has a lot more energy than Mr. Gibbs, the job of the drums and the older pirate just some plunking to do. Finally, as several songs I have done use saxophone (especially off of Paradise Theatre and No Vacancy: The Best of The Motels), but most do not, I gave that instrument to a relative of one of the Crew who can only come occasionally. (I have not decided who should be singing when the parody is of a song by an artist whose lead singer did not play an instrument.)