The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113841 Message #2423934
Posted By: Nerd
27-Aug-08 - 09:50 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Unto the East Indies We Were Bound
Subject: ADD Version: Polly on the Shore
This is certainly a version of "Polly on the Shore,"
The digitrad says it is by Randy Newman, but that's nonsense. It's a traditional song.
irishenglish was quite right about those versions. Also Trees named their classic album On the Shore for this song, of which they do an epic folk-rock version.
Here's how I learned it:
Polly on the Shore
Come all you wild young men and a warning take by me Never lead your single life astray or into bad company
As I myself have done being all in the month of May When I ws pressed by a sea captain To the privateering trade
To the East Indies we were bound to plunder the raging main And it's many the brave and galliant ship We sent to a watery grave
Ah, for Freeport we did steer our provisions to renew When we did spy a bold man-of-war sailing three feet to our two
And a thousand times I wished myself alone, All alone with my Polly on the shore
We sailed on the ocean so wide And our bonny bonny flag we let fly, Let every man stand true to his gun For the lord knows who must die.
Oh, she fired across our bows "Heave to and don't refuse Surrender now unto my command or else your lives you'll lose"
And our decks they were spattered with blood And the cannons did loudly roar And broadside and broadside a long time we lay Till we could fight no more
Oh, our captain was wounded full sore And so were the rest of his men Our main mast riggin' it was scattered on the deck So that we were obliged to give in.
And a thousand times I wished myself alone, All alone with my Polly on the shore
She's a tall and a slender girl with a dark and a-rolling eye And here am I, a-bleeding on the deck And for her sweet sake must die
Farewell, my family and my friends likewise my Polly too I'd never have plundered the salt sea wide If I'd have been ruled by you
And a thousand times I saw myself again, All alone with my Polly on the shore