[ti:Shipyard (feat. Jimmy Nail, Br]
[ar:Sting]
[al:The Last Ship (Deluxe Edition)]
[00:00.38]Shipyard - Sting
[00:00.94](feat. Jimmy Nail, Brian Johnson & Jo Lawry)
[00:02.63]
[00:15.54]Ah, me name is Jackie White and I'm foreman of the yard,
[00:19.16]
[00:19.67]And ye don't mess with Jackie on this quayside.
[00:22.22]
[00:22.97]Why I'm as hard as iron plate, woe betide ye if yr late,
[00:27.09]When we have to push the boat out on a spring tide.
[00:29.77]
[00:30.46]Now ye could die and hope for Heaven, but ye'd need to work shift,your
[00:34.20]And I'd expect ye's all to back us to the hilt.
[00:36.82]
[00:37.69]And if St. Peter at his gate were to ask ye why yr late,
[00:41.75]Why you'd tell him that ye had to get a ship built.
[00:44.43]
[00:45.37]We built battleships and cruisers for Her Majesty the Queen,
[00:49.24]Super tankers for Onassis, and all the classes in between,
[00:52.67]We built the greatest shipping tonnage that the world has ever seen,
[00:57.22]
[00:57.91]And the only life we've known is in the shipyard.
[01:00.97]
[01:05.21]All the platers and the welders, and the boiler making crews,
[01:09.08]When they see that bugger finished on the slipway,
[01:11.64]
[01:12.51]All the hardship's soon forgot and we'll cheer as like as not,
[01:16.57]And the bairns'll wave their Union Jacks all day.
[01:19.56]It's a patriotic scene, all that's missing is the Queen,
[01:23.87]But she said she couldn't make it of a Tuesday.
[01:26.49]
[01:27.24]Then something wells up here inside, and you could take it in yr stride,
[01:31.23]But you wonder if you'll see another payday.
[01:33.73]
[01:34.35]For there's a mixture of emotions, hatred, gratitude and pride,
[01:37.91]
[01:38.41]And you hate yourself for crying but it's difficult to hide,
[01:41.78]For there's a sadness in the leavin' and ye worry what's ahead,
[01:45.32]And that worry never leaves ye, keeps on nagging in yr head,
[01:48.94]And so ye pray to God for orders, but ye'll worry till yr dead...
[01:53.93]Until they bury your remains in the blacksmith's shed,
[01:57.86]
[01:58.73]And the only life ye've known is in the shipyard.
[02:02.29]
[02:03.04]Steel in the stockyard,
[02:05.10]Iron in the soul,
[02:06.41]We'll conjure up a ship where there used to be a hole.
[02:11.22]And I don't know what we'll do if this yard gets sold,
[02:15.02]
[02:15.67]For the only life we've known is in the shipyard.
[02:19.04]
[02:28.02]Ah, me name is Tommy Thompson, I'm shop steward for the Union,
[02:31.83]Me dream is proletarian revolution,
[02:33.51]
[02:35.13]Comrades, brothers, fellow travellers and others,
[02:38.13]Class struggle is the means of dialectic evolution.
[02:41.19]
[02:41.75]Das Kapital's me bible and the ruling class are liable,
[02:45.24]And quoting Marx and Engels, it's entirely justifiable,
[02:48.68]If the workers' revolution here is ever to be viable,
[02:54.04]
[02:55.48]And we become the rightful owners of this shipyard.
[02:58.97]So it's a one-day stoppage, or an overtime ban,
[03:02.09]Or a work to rule for the Five Year Plan.
[03:06.40]
[03:08.21]'Til the means of production are safely in our hands,
[03:11.83]
[03:12.64]And we become the rightful owners of this shipyard.
[03:15.69]
[03:16.38]I'm not saying it won't be hard if the boss hands us me cards,
[03:19.75]When they try to close us down like other shipyards.
[03:21.90]
[03:22.64]And if industrial action only helps the competition,
[03:26.20]As I've heard the bosses bleating from their usual position,
[03:29.70]And I stand accused of anarchy, disruption and sedition,
[03:33.69]
[03:36.12]Well ye'll never knock us down, you reactionary clowns!
[03:39.81]
[03:40.37]When it's time for occupation of the shipyard.
[03:43.74]My name is Peggy White,
[03:47.54]
[03:49.60]And I've nursed ye through your injuries and yr cuts and wounds I've bound.
[03:54.78]
[03:55.41]Busted arms, and busted heads,
[03:57.96]Broken backs and broken legs,
[04:00.27]
[04:00.84]I'd sooner put ye in a splint than have them put ye in the ground.
[04:05.76]
[04:06.64]And the fumes from all the welding where the poison air is hung,
[04:09.88]And the toxic radiation that's been blackening your tongue,
[04:12.63]I could give you's all an aspirin while you're coughing up your lungs,
[04:18.37]
[04:20.38]But it's all you'll ever get here in this shipyard.
[04:23.25]
[04:34.42]Ah, me name is Davy Harrison, I like a drink or two,
[04:37.35]You could ask me when it started but I haven't got a clue.
[04:40.16]I'm never sad or miserable I'm never ever blue,
[04:42.78]And I'll still be up tomorrow for the shipyard.
[04:45.27]
[04:45.96]I drink meself into a stupor and I wake up with two heeds,
[04:50.33]And then the missus starts complainin' about all me drunken deeds,
[04:54.39]
[04:55.45]Like when I got the train to Sunderland but found meself in Leeds,
[05:00.69]
[05:01.56]And I had to get up early for the shipyard.
[05:04.56]
[05:05.49]I once gave up the drinking, was it 1963?
[05:09.55]But it seems as if sobriety was not the thing for me,
[05:12.98]It was the worst three hours I ever hope to see...
[05:18.47]
[05:19.03]Steel in the stockyard,
[05:20.34]Iron in the soul,
[05:21.65]We'll conjure up a ship where there used to be a hole.
[05:26.71]And the ship sets sail and the tale gets told,
[05:30.39]
[05:31.26]And the only life I've known is in the shipyard.
[05:34.82]Steel in the stockyard,
[05:35.57]Iron in the soul,
[05:36.57]We'll get the bastard finished, and we'll end up on the dole.
[05:40.38]
[05:41.93]And we don't know what we'll do if the yard gets sold,
[05:47.74]The only life we've ever known is in the shipyard.