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