Wiktionary
n. (piece of eight English)
Wikipedia
Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album by Styx, released on September 1, 1978.
Like the band's previous album, The Grand Illusion, it managed to achieve triple-platinum certification, thanks to the hit singles " Sing for the Day", " Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and " Renegade".
The band members produced and recorded the album (like their previous three efforts) at Paragon Studios in Chicago with recording engineer Barry Mraz and mixing engineer Rob Kingsland. "I'm O.K." was recorded at Paragon and St. James Cathedral. This would be the last album to be produced at Paragon Studios.
Some consider the album to be Styx' second concept album, The Serpent Is Rising arguably being the first, as well as the last Styx album with significant progressive rock leanings that characterized their previous albums. The theme of the album, as Dennis DeYoung explained on In the Studio with Redbeard which devoted an entire episode to Pieces of Eight, was about "not giving up your dreams just for the pursuit of money and material possessions".
Two of the album's ten tracks are instrumentals: the DeYoung synthesizer showcase "The Message" and Tommy Shaw's closing "Aku-Aku" (although for the latter, there was one lyric spoken, the title of the song). "The Message" serves as a prelude for "Lords of the Ring", and "Aku-Aku" is a postlude for "Pieces of Eight".
The album's cover was done by Hipgnosis. DeYoung stated in the same 1991 interview with Redbeard on the "In the Studio" episode that he initially hated the cover but grew to like it as he got older.
Pieces of Eight is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and music by Jule Styne. It is based on the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The central characters are Jim Hawkins, a young man in possession of a treasure map, and the mutinous pirate Long John Silver, who serves as a mentor and father-figure to the boy.
The world premiere opened on November 27, 1985 at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. Joe Layton was the director and choreographer, and the cast included George Hearn (as Silver), Jonathan Ross, Graeme Campbell, George Lee Andrews, Robert Fitch, and Brian McKay.
According to theatre critic/historian Ken Mandelbaum, Pieces of Eight never got beyond its Edmonton production.
Usage examples of "pieces of eight".
There were the three canvas sacks closed with copper wire, and inside of them the seven thousand two hundred fourteen pieces of eight, which continued glowing like embers in the darkness.
They were in the town but a short time, but in that time they were able to gather together and to carry away money and jewels to the value of fifty thousand pieces of eight, besides dragging off with them a dozen or more notable prisoners, whom they held for ransom.
He had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight, and a tobacco pipe: the last was to me of ten times more value than the first.