Life On A Cattle Boat 1915 'A Maid And A Myth'

James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 30 Oct 2004

[Bunk:] When you're off for a trip
take a tip never ship on a cattle boat.
[Chorus:] On a cattle boat.
[Harrison:] All you get for breakfast
is prunes and a knife
on a cattle boat.
[Chorus:] A cattle boat.
[Ted:] You lunch upon timothy
dine upon chaff
[Healthy:] At night you sing lullabys
to some sick calf
on a cattle boat.
[Chorus:] On a cattle boat.
My boy never ship
on a cattle boat.

[Chorus:] Heigh ho we merrily go
riding the waves on a cattle boat
you say to yourself
you're all kinds of a fool
And sigh for the day
when you'll reach Liverpool.
Work, work, work
and a rope to the fellow that shirks
so you laugh Ha! Ha!
and you laugh He! He!
to the fellow who sing of a life
on the sea
and you pay mighty well
for your trip to Paree
as over the billows you float.

Heigh ho we merrily go
riding the waves on a cattle boat
you say to yourself
you're all kinds of a fool
And sigh for the day
when you'll reach Liverpool.
Work, work, work
and a rope to the fellow that shirks
so you laugh Ha! Ha!
and you laugh He! He!
to the fellow who sing of a life
on the sea
and you pay mighty well
for your trip to Paree
as over the billows you float.

[Dance a la Hornpipe:]

[Bunk:] You never can know
till you've tried it
how slow is a cattle boat.
[Chorus:] A cattle boat.
[Harrison:] It's a ten decade trip
from Old Cork to New York
a cattle boat
[Chorus:] A cattle boat.
[Ted:] I remember a cow
that I bunked with last trip.
[Harrison:] A sweet little calf
when she boarded the ship,
but old age did it's work
[Chorus:] She grew thin and thinner
she died four days out
and we had her for dinner.

Heigh ho we merrily go
riding the waves on a cattle boat
you say to yourself
you're all kinds of a fool
And sigh for the day
when you'll reach Liverpool.
Work, work, work
and a rope to the fellow that shirks
so you laugh Ha! Ha!
and you laugh He! He!
to the fellow who sing of a life
on the sea
and you pay mighty well
for your trip to Paree
as over the billows you float.

Heigh ho we merrily go
riding the waves on a cattle boat
you say to yourself
you're all kinds of a fool
And sigh for the day
when you'll reach Liverpool.
Work, work, work
and a rope to the fellow that shirks
so you laugh Ha! Ha!
and you laugh He! He!
to the fellow who sing of a life
on the sea
and you pay mighty well
for your trip to Paree
as over the billows you float.

[Another Dance a la Hornpipe:]

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
AMAAM05 - Life On A Cattle Boat 1915
Music by H.N.Byers
Lyrics by R.F.Field
© 1915 by C. M. Ferguson
*
sequence and karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Saturday 30 October 2004 at 16.18
in association with Doug Grierson
*
University of Illinois
*