You can hear this on Spotify or at YouTube. My transcription. The tune of the chorus is the same as the verses.


MEN ON THE RIGS
As recorded by Alan S. Ferguson and Friends on "Freedom's Sons, Vol. 1" (2004)

Well, there's brave men from Shetland right down to Dundee
Workin' on rigs bringin' oil from the sea.
For a week on the rigs they get money galore
To buy what they need and a bloody sight more,
To buy what they need and a bloody sight more.

Its fourteen days on; it's twelve hours a day,
And, man, you've to work bloody hard for your pay.
Your mates are at home and they're lyin' asleep
While you're out in the night draggin' oil from the deep,
While you're out in the night draggin' oil from the deep.

CHORUS: To work on the rigs, man, it's brave and it's bold.
In the papers and storybooks, that's how it's told,
But the men on the rigs are like you and like me.
How would you like to be that damn close to the sea?
How would you like to be that damn close to the sea?

It's cold, it's wet, and your shift's nearly through.
Some other poor rigger takes over from you.
You'll go down below and you'll sleep bloody well.
In another twelve hours you'll be back there in hell.
In another twelve hours you'll be back there in hell.

CHORUS

So don't count the millions of pounds that it cost;
Just think of the poor bloody lives that are lost,
And a prosperous Scotland for you and for me
Is in the hands of the men that drag oil from the sea,
Is in the hands of the men that drag oil from the sea.

CHORUS TWICE