The lyrics to SAVE THE WHALES are now on Joe McDonald's web site. A few words are different from those posted above, so I'll post it again with the changed words in boldface. (I suspect Joe himself updated the lyrics sometime after he first recorded it.)


SAVE THE WHALES
Words and music by Joe McDonald
Copyright © 1975 Alkatraz Corner Music Co BMI.

When my grandpa was a boy, he went down to the general store,
Saw a picture book of a whale shooting its spout and flashin' its tail.
Then he got a sailor's dream 'bout cruisin' around on the salty sea,
Joinin' up with a fishin' crew to go out and get him a whale or two.
Tell me, what kind of men are these who sail upon the salty seas,
Up in the rigging in the afternoon, swabbin' the decks and sharpenin' harpoons?

CHORUS: Hooray and up she rises.
Hooray and up she rises.
Hooray and up she rises,
Early in the morning. REPEAT CHORUS

Shanghaied by the light of the moon, put out from Boston in the middle of June,
After six months out at sea, it's nothin' but death and misery.
Set out on a three-year cruise, a union ship and a union crew,
And after six months you begin to see, that whalin's not what it used to be.
A modern ship and a modern crew with sonar scopes and explodin' harpoons,
A mechanical boat made out o' steel, a floating machine built to kill the whales.

CHORUS TWICE

There're lots of whales in the deep blue sea. we kill them for the company.
We drag 'em 'longside and chop 'em in two and melt 'em down and sell 'em to you.
There hardly is a sailor alive who can keep the tears from his eyes
As he remembers the good old days when there were no whales to save.
Thank the Russians and Japanese for scouring the deep blue seas,
Looking for ivory and perfume and plastic toys and pet food.

CHORUS TWICE

REPEAT FIRST VERSE AND CHORUS


[Recorded by Country Joe & the Fish on their album "Turned Up and Turned On." It's also on several solo albums by Country Joe McDonald: "Bread & Roses Festival 1977," "Into the Fray," "Classics," "Paradise with an Ocean View," and "Twenty Years After: The Woodstock Reunion Concert." Danny Doyle, an Irish musician, also recorded it on "Folk Masters Ensemble."]