Sting: When the Last Ship Sails Page #3

I'm known better for

I may forego English grammar

when I'm injured by the hammer

But I've a preference for

the deference of a metaphor

I've read The Odyssey by Homer,

and the Iliad as well

- I've read Tacitus and Pliny

- Aye, aye, and the Scarlet Pimpernel

I've spent a night shift down with

Dante on his journey into Hell

And that's what we'll all be facing,

if this yard's put up to sell

For the only life we've

known is in the shipyard...

- Shall I go on?

- Go on.

Now about those Trojan wars and

the troubles that they caused,

- when they sailed off on that

summer's afternoon? - Yes.

Because the ship they had was crap,

and they lost their bloody map

When they tried to get

themselves back to the tomb

There's a lesson in these tales

although they happened ages past

Just like Spartacus,

that film by Stanley Kubricks

First it's tragedy then farce,

then they'll kick you up the arse

When you tempt the gods

with arrogance and hubris

Well, it's obvious I'm gifted

with the rhyming and the meter

- And hereabouts I'm thought

of highly as a bard! - As a bard.

And if I wasn't shooting rivets,

I'd be famous in me time

All those literary circles,

I could dazzle with me rhyme

I've never lacked ambition,

you can say it was a crime

For rivets may be riveting,

but sonnets are sublime

And the only life we've known

is in the shipyard... Come on, lads!

Steel in the stockyard,

iron in the soul

We'll conjure up a ship

where there used to be a hole

But we don't know what

we'll do if this yard gets sold

For the only life we've

known is in the shipyard...

Oh, here he comes, Davy Harrison,

the town drunk!

- Are you all right, Davy?

- Davy!

Oh, me name is Davy Harrison,

I like a drink or two

You could ask me when it started,

and I haven't got a clue

I'm ever never miserable,

I'm never ever blue

And I'll still be up tomorrow

for the shipyard

I drink meself into a stupor,

and I wake up with two heeds

And then the missus starts complainin',

about all me drunken deeds

Like when I got the

train to Sunderland...

- ... but found meself in Leeds

- Leeds!

And I had to get up

early for the shipyards

You know I once

gave up the drinking

It was 1963

But it seems as if sobriety

was not the thing for me

It was the worst...

three hours,

I ever hope to see

Steel in the stockyard,

iron in the soul

We'll conjure up a ship where

there used to be a hole

And the ship sets sail,

and the tale gets told

And the only life we've

known is in the shipyard

Steel in the stockyard,

iron in the soul

We'll get the bastard finished

and we'll end up on the dole

And we don't know what

we'll do if the yard gets sold

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