The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #44872   Message #986519
Posted By: GUEST,fred@fredbaileymusic.com
19-Jul-03 - 09:20 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Martin Greigh (Taylor Whiteside)
Subject: Lyr Add: MARTIN GREIGH (Taylor Whiteside)
Have sung this one often for years, but can't guarantee the accuracy of the lyrics, as in my religion the singer gets to revise the songwriter:

My Father was a fisherman, likewise my brothers too
They followed in his footsteps, with a wooden point of view
While I the black sheep of the lot work safely on the shore
And keep account of what we got, find ways to make it more

CHORUS: Four boats in the harbor, where's the Martin Greigh?
         She was due to fetch that Cutty Light by 3O'clock today
         No sail on the horizon, no vessel by the Cay(sp?)
         Four boats in the harbor, oh where's the Martin Greigh?

Now our mother left for Boston town some seven years ago
Us boys'd see that letter come each Christmas time or so
And father takes the dory then, and round the harbor rows
Until the weather drives him in that's when the sorrow shows

I know our father said that some fine day he'd take the Greigh and go
To an island far beyond the bay that the coasting trade don't know
And there he'll run the mainsail down and anchor by the shore
And dream about old fishing grounds and think on her once more

You see, a man's the master of his heart as boys we all were told
And you strain to play the hero's part, a Captain brave and bold
But in the end you'll pay the toll for feelings never shown
And trapped within this age-old role you find yourself alone



Hope that works for you --- a fine singalong and one of the best modern (sensitive?) sea songs in my collection

fred