The Pump Shanty
by Tony Goodenough

They say life has its ups and downs,
I find that really quite profound,
I’d like to turn the capstan round,
But it’s pump me boys before we drown.

Chorus
Pump me boys, pump ’er dry,
Down to hell and up to the sky,
Bend your back and break your bones,
We’re just a thousand miles from home.

The ocean we all do adore,
So come on lads let’s pump some more,
Don’t worry if you’re stiff and sore,
I’m sure we’ve pumped this bit before.

The captain’s daughter, I suppose,
Could be called an English Rose,
What would you think when I propose,
The pox she gave to me a dose.

Went to the doctor right away,
To find out what he had to say,
“That’s two pounds ten - get on your way,”
I think the girl is in his pay.

Sometimes I wish that I could die,
The man who built this tub to find,
I’d drag him back from where he fries,
To pump until the beggar’s dry.

If Noah’d used him for his ark,
Now wouldn’t that have been a lark?
From rising sun ’til setting dark,
The animals all hard at work (singin’)

There’s so much water down below,
Just how it got there I don’t know,
The old man says, “Let’s roll and go,”
But I think we’re bound for Davy Jones.

key of em (4:24)
Jim Hancock – guitar, bass, lead voice
Vicki Scuteri - violin
The Burly Pyrates – Charles Murray, Vicki Scuteri,
Gregg Csikos, Rose McPartland, Bob Bielefeld,
Gary Mazzu, Susan Hickey, T.M. Demetrius,
Jerry Barry, Douglas Scott Kondziolka