Artful Codger let me know in a PM that he reckons the song begins "Dear friends..." and the missing word in verse 3 line 8 is "flak."

"Dear" must be correct. I'm just not used to the posh accent, I guess. It never occurred to me "dear" might be pronounced "dyur."

About "flak" I can't say one way or the other. He really seems to swallow the word when he sings it.

And I might as well confess that I'm very uncertain about "My name, sir, is Reverend...." If he is addressing "friends" (plural) in line 1, why does he use "sir" (singular) in line 2?

Other possibilities:
"My name's Sir Reverend...." (Is it ever proper to use "Sir" before "Reverend"?)
"My names are...."
"My name's Irreverend...."
—but none of those seems quite right either.