We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Life In The Merchant Navy

from A Life Spent Staring At Chairs by Paul Carbuncle

/

lyrics

In the year of 1971
With my bags all packed and my schooldays done
I embarked on a life that was second to none
A life in the merchant navy.
In Gravesend they revealed to me
All the mysteries and the skills of the sea
And the social graces necessary
To serve in the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

I went to sea for the very first time
On a cargo boat of the blue-star line
And with a hundred crew, well it felt so fine
To be part of the merchant navy.
It was new to me, just a raw cadet,
All the table manners and the etiquette,
Oh you’d be surprised at the guests you’d get
Onboard in the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

Our trade routes took us all the way
To Australia and Amerikay
With passengers who would gladly pay
To sail with the merchant navy.
At the captain’s table they’d raise a jar
To the wonders of those lands afar,
Through Suez and through Panama,
Alone with the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

Our cargoes round the world we bore
To exotic ports, from ship to shore,
From Istanbul to Singapore
You’d find the merchant navy.
At the night-time bars the crew reformed
Where the beer was cold and the brandy warmed
And the girls all loved the uniforms
Of the boys of the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

Many years I served, all my stripes to gain
And I earned the title of a sea captain.
With just fifteen crew well I felt the strain
Of the modern merchant navy.
And danger lay in the China seas,
We were boarded by pirates and bound on our knees.
Oh they took all the money but they set us free,
Hard times in the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

Well I’ve been retired three years or more,
With my sea-boots hanging by the door,
But I’ve still got memories by the score
Of my time in the merchant navy.
Now I sailed a single-handed race
With the wind in my hair and the sun on my face,
For you see I’ll always bear a trace
Of life in the merchant navy.

Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.

credits

from A Life Spent Staring At Chairs, released April 9, 2018
Lyrics and tune by Julie Wigley.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Paul Carbuncle image

Paul Carbuncle Nottingham, UK

You can take the lad out of Pluckley but he'll still sing about hops.

Profile photo by Hugh Miller.

contact / help

Contact Paul Carbuncle

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Paul Carbuncle, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now