ADD: Turn the Boat Around (Kaplan)(also Clayton)

Subject: Lyr Add: Turn the Boat Around (Larry Kaplan)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 04:31 PM

Thecurrent discussion of Song for Gale made me bring out my Larry Kaplan CD, Worth All the Telling, Folk-Legacy CD-122. The CD is a collection of Larry Kaplan songs covering twenty years or more of songwriting. Here's another treasure from the CD booklet.


^^
2. TURN THE BOAT AROUND (Kaplan, BMI)
Larry: guitar, banjo, vocal, chorus vocal • David: concertina Sandy: chorus vocal

The Connecticut River was for many years a major commercial link between northern and southern New England, and between the cities and towns of the region. Late at night, sometimes you can still hear the engines of tugs as they push oil barges along the tidal portion of that great river. Most of the Connecticut's commerce has been replaced by rail and truck now, and the working vessels mostly by pleasure craft. This is about another time when jobs were plentiful working on that river.

Turn the Boat Around
(Larry Kaplan)

CHORUS
Turn the boat around;
It's a long walk home
If we go aground,
And it's two more days
Till we reach the Sound.
Turn the boat around.

I'm an old landlubber
When it comes to boats and sea.
I wouldn't know a rudderpost
If it fell on top of me.
When times are rough, you take a job
That wasn't meant to be.
Work is work, but this is work
To put an end to me.

Turn the boat around...

This river moves so quickly,
It fools you constantly.
Dodging rocks, no time to stop
Or mind the fallen trees.
The Captain used to tell me,
"You'll pick it up somehow,"
But I'm at home in a pickup truck
And working with a plow.

Turn the boat around...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Turn the Boat Around (Larry Kaplan)
From: Suffet
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 08:33 PM

Here's another song with the same title. This one is by Bob Clayton.

--- Steve


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TURN THE BOAT AROUND
Tune: The Yellow Rose of Texas (traditional)
New words: Bob Clayton © 2003


Our leader landed on the deck dressed in his soldier suit,
A banner hanging over him, he looked so doggone cute,
But San Diego could be seen, right there in the background,
So the order soon was given, "Turn the boat around!"

Chorus:
It's time to turn the boat around, that's what the people say,
The course our leader's setting is exactly the wrong way.
The compass reads disaster, you've run us hard aground,
It's time to fire the skipper, and then turn the boat around!


He claimed that he'd found danger, right there in white and black,
And the cause of all that danger was in far away Iraq,
Weapons, terror, poison gas, nuke-u-lar missiles, too,
All waiting, primed and ready, to target me and you.

[Repeat chorus]

So we went off a-shooting, and soon had them on the run,
With bought and paid for press along, to show us all the fun.
We never found those weapons, the poison gas and such,
And the folks whose land we shot to hell don't like us very much.

[Repeat chorus]

Now, here at home, his policies are tilted toward the rich,
With tax cuts and a deficit that's grown to be a bitch,
But here's how they will fix it all, to help both you and me:
They'll spend the dough and take it from Social Security!

[Repeat chorus]

This is the ship of state, not another photo op,
And when it gets to going, it's damn-all hard to stop,
But if we can turn a carrier to try to fool the press,
Then we can turn the country 'round, and get out of this mess.

[Repeat chorus]