A Pirate Looks at Forty

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Infobox song

| name = A Pirate Looks at Forty

| cover =

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Jimmy Buffett

| album = A1A

| A-side = A Pirate Looks at Forty

| B-side = Presents to Send You

| released = February 1975

| recorded =

| studio = Woodland (Nashville, Tennessee){{cite web|last=McNutt|first=Randy|title=Ghosts of Nashville's Recording Studios, Part 1|url=http://homeofthehits.blogspot.com/2011/08/ghosts-of-nashvilles-recording-studios.html|website=Home of the Hits|date=August 7, 2011|access-date=August 8, 2024}}

| venue =

| genre = {{hlist|Country{{cite book|author=Frye Gaillard|title=The Quilt: And the Poetry of Alabama Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOd1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|date=1 January 2012|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-60306-391-3|page=29}}|Gulf and Western}}

| length = 3:57

| label = Dunhill
D-15029 (US, 7")

| writer = Jimmy Buffett

| producer = Don Gant

| prev_title = Pencil Thin Mustache

| prev_year = 1974

| next_title = Door Number Three

| next_year = 1974

| misc = {{Audio sample

| type = single

| file = JIMMY BUFFETT -- A Pirate Looks at Forty.ogg

}}

{{external music video|header=Audio|{{YouTube|1o0Oft05oFE|"A Pirate Looks at Forty" by Jimmy Buffett}}}}

{{external music video|header=no|{{YouTube|erP7c_FYcvw|"A Pirate Looks at Forty" (live, 1978) by Jimmy Buffett}}}}

}}

"A Pirate Looks at Forty" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was first released on his 1974 album A1A and "Presents to Send You" is the B-side of the single.

Buffett wrote the song about Phillip Clark, at the Chart Room where Buffett first performed after his move to Key West, Florida.[http://www.cobo.org/about/earlydaze.html "Early Daze."] at CoBO.org The song contains the bittersweet confession of a modern-day, washed-up drug smuggler as he looks back on the first 40 years of his life, expresses lament that his preferred vocation of piracy on the high seas was long gone by the time he was born, and ponders his future.

For radio play, the song was shortened by deleting the fourth verse for the single release. Cash Box said the song has "an almost reggae progression, fine guitar playing and lead solo, [and] moving lyrics".{{cite news|title=CashBox Record Reviews|date=March 29, 1975|page=22|accessdate=2021-12-11|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1975/CB-1975-03-29.pdf|newspaper=Cash Box}} Record World said that "This limitless piece of demographic dauntlessness should ship him out of port under more steam than anything since 'Come Monday.'"{{cite magazine|magazine=Record World|date=March 22, 1975|accessdate=2023-03-10|title=Hits of the Week|page=1|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Record-World/70s/75/RW-1975-03-22.pdf}} The song is one of Buffett's more popular, and is part of "The Big 8" that he played at almost all of his concerts, and always during the second set.[http://www.buffettnews.com/resources/songs/?page=listplayed "Songs Played the Most."] at BuffettNews.org