The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #86092   Message #3105964
Posted By: Jeri
02-Mar-11 - 10:45 PM
Thread Name: BS: I wonder if there is a heaven, and . . .
Subject: Lyr Add: Heaven's a Bar
Darlodave asked a question and so refreshed this 5+ year old thread. I found the lyrics, and there's a Youtube of the Exmouth Shanty Men singing it.

HEAVEN'S A BAR

Written by Dorset's Tim Laycock and recorded by him with the New Scorpion Band.

Heaven's a Bar
Heaven's a Bar, down by the dock,
Where the liquor is free, they keeps a great stock,
There's always a place, always a smile,
For a sailor come home from sea.

The girls they are beauties, they dance and they sing,
They'll treat an old tar, like a Lord or a King,
Heaven's a Bar, down by the dock,
Where there's liquor for all and it's free.

There in the snug, drinking with me,
Shipmates returned, from seven salt seas,
Tarry, tailed tars, gold buckled shoes,
The cream and the dregs of the crew.
Just sailors ashore, with a dream in their eye,
Who've seen the world's end, where the sea meets the sky,
Visions remain, wonders recalled,
By the trinkets that hang on the wall.

Late in the night, clouds hurry past,
The moon winks and goes, the doors are barred fast,
Charts are laid out, contraband found,
The crossed bones marked out on the ground.
The figurehead does it, she never gets tired,
She beckons a breeze, from her berth by the fire,
Songs roll around, waves hit the bar,
Till the bottles wash up on the shore.

Tim Laycock