This darkly humourous song was written by a friend of a friend in Rhode Island. Point Judith is a tiny fishing port/town on the RI coast... and also one of two points of departure for the Block Island Ferry. This song works best when sung (verses are actually almost spoken, as in a storytelling narrative) with a regional accent which I have attempted to loosely represent below.

KEEP ON FISHIN'
by Jim (John?) Campbell (c)

Ya know sometimes you can't win for tryin
Couldn't catch a fish if fish were flyin
The nets and cables all get knotted
And the engine runs like the diesel's clotted

And nothin goes like ya think it oughtta
Ya get bag on bag on bag of water
You'd think you mighta died and gone to heaven
If you could just get a job at a 7-11

Well it was ice and rain and freezin up hard
We had three sea robins and a 7-inch cod
Takin on water, losing the rudder
And the goddamn prop made the whole boat shudder

We were halfway done haulin back
When the cable let go with a helluva crack
Took out the cook as he stood at the rail
Scrambled his eggs --- dead as a nail

Well we all stood around, thumbin our butts
We hadta do somethin but we didn't know what
And though he kinda looked under the weather
Most of us thought he'd never looked much better
But...

Chorus:
We had fuel and ice to pay and
We'd just steamed out yesterday
He was a real good hand and we sure will miss him
But we iced him down and we kept on fishin

Well if you said we were cold, I'd have to agree
But no colder than him, nearer by "cod" to thee
'Sides its quiet and peaceful under the deck an'
He couldn't say jacksh*t about it, I reckon

So while he was lying and chillin down there
We took a vote -- "yeah he'll make a whole share"
And most of us thought that was a damn good deal
Seein as how we'd had to cook our own meals
But...

(chorus)

Well it took us awhile to finish that trip
Down at the dock they gave us some lip
An' the Coast Guard come down to see what was about
But the bastards wouldn't help us lumping him out

They said we "had no respect for the dead"
But they were lucky we just didn't gut 'im and head 'im
And when it came time to go fishin again, don't you know
We couldn't find a single dude in Point Judith willing to go
But...

(chorus)

Final chorus: When you got fuel and ice to pay and
You just steamed out yesterday
You might feel bad and you might miss him
(spoken) But when you're into a big ol mess-o-fish you just gotta...
(sung)keep on fishin

Despite it's apparent length, even with instrumental breaks this song clocks in at about three minutes. If anyone is interested I can put up a small sample (1 verse + chorus?) MP3 on my website so you can get the feel of it. As a crowd pleaser (the song that is, not ME), I'd say it's worth learning.

*elektra*