Louis
A cop he leers at Louis as he sees him in the street
Louis he sells watches a man has got to eat
The watches are legit is Luis usual claim
The cop he laughs at Luis it's a game
So there among the fisheads Marseille is the town
The cop he cuffs up Luis Luis going down
Luis knows that crime crime it never pays
But Luis hates the sea and that's his trade
Four brothers to the sea each one he has lost
So if it's of to prison he will bare the cost
Fisheads in the gutter Marseille is the town
Louis Louis Louis going down
Pressganged
And so you sailed to sea when you were twenty three
Press ganged one night how you did fight into the navy
Your fate gets worse you see
Press ganged to mutiny
And so welcome your new career
A pirate on the sea
Your captain he was cruel nine tails and foulest gruel
Then you are caught convicted of the crime of piracy
Your last words you do say a victim dies today
So now you croak upon a rope tied to a hanging tree
Chicago Sunset
In the red Chicago sunset
I could smell his rotting bones
I could smell greed and corruption
The old corpses gently moan
In the red Chicago sunset
The cars they gently drone
While in cement foundations
Lie the victims now unknown
In the red Chicago sunset
I dream I hear the phone
And on the other end of it
Is that horse thief Al Capone
Do you want to buy some liqour
Do you want to buy a cop
Or buy a politician
In America we shop
In the red Chicago sunset
I can only cry
Chicago Chicago
You're built on vice and lies
Drunken Sailor
Raped a girl stabbed her brother
Killed her father and her mother
Looking now to rape another
Burnt a church down near the quay
Thrown some children out to sea
He'll kill you and he'll kill me
Aliye in the morning
His dinner he does vomit out
Foul obsceneties he shouts
Now he's foaming at the mouth
He'll bite you like a rabid dog
He shits himself like he's a hog
He's pissing in the face of God
Aliye in the morning
What shall we do with the drunken sailor
Put him in the long boat until he's sober
Luis Miller
On the portside Luis Miller Luis Miller's losing blood
On the portside with his wallet looking for a little love
On the portside Lisa Jennings been raped and robbed again
On the portside Lisa's pimp was getting drunk again
On the portside Billy Boysson's face is a bloody pulp
That'll teach him in Jackies on her rum to gulp
On the portside drag queen Lilly sings shanties with no names
While three boys fuck a captain three boys on the game
On the portside seagulls on last nights vomit feed
While another murder victim in the gutter to death bleeds
Devil's Child
A Sailor came to town
a little seaside town
he courted there a country girl
to her heart he had found
When she in love gave him
her body and her limbs
he took her avariciously
when he performed the sin
The sailor left the town
left her in grief unbound
nine months went by
in labour then a baby boy was found
They say the sailor was the devil in disguise
he cast a spell on the young girl
seduced her with his lies
They say he was his spawn
the devils so deformed
no mercy for the mother then
a devils child still born
The mother took her child with anguish crazed was she
and threw herself along with child into the raging sea
By the Shore
In tatoo parlours by the shore they do anchors by the score
neptune and mermaids and girls from far away
in tatoo parlours by the shore
In massage parlours by the shore they do sailors by the score
even when business stank forty they'd wank
in massage parlours by the shore
In funeral parlours by the shore business is rarely poor
marble slabs sagging with drownings and stabbings in
funeral parlours by the shore
Captain Bligh
The whaler goes on out to sea
The bell tolls from the belfry
Captain Blie harpoon in hand
cat-o-ninetails every man
Captain Blie meets his end
Eaten up by revenge
Eaten up full of hate
Grisily is his fate
Moral given never learnt
If you hate you'll be burnt
Every man on board is damned
Each one knows it every hand
No man here forgets his past
When Captain Blie is dead at last
Cadavours
The cadavours they are smelling down by elesian fields
the waters been corrupted and the people they feel ill
The death carts visit visit your house today
to take away the loved ones who have passed away
The plague it shows no mercy on who it does take it
has no sense of justice
the evil can escape
And after it has gorged itself on your loved ones flesh
it will disapear until it strikes afresh
Fishermen
On the portside whores are singing while the rubbers
they are flinging of a night of fornicating
with sailors far away
While the sun it is setting the fishermen are netting the whores
sperm they are begetting of sailors far away
And the sailors they are ithing their syphillis is twitching a gift
of those bewitching whores now far away
The sailors they are singing for soon
they will be drowning on the sea
on which they're sailing now so far away
Jackies Bar
In Jackies bar is where the sailors they all drink
And when next day it opens Jackies always stinks
The sailors they all vomit their guts out on her floor
Next morning with her mop she cleans it from the floor
In Jackies bar the sailors the sailors they all fight
And if there's not a stabbing its been a quiet night
Sometimes sailors bleed to death there upon her floor
Murdered by a pimp they didn't pay a whore
The whores they sit in jackies legs on table tops
Showing of their wares to anyone who'll stop
The whores who work in Jackies are the cheapest one's around
You always get a dose of clap when on one you go down
King Neptune
Old Johnny he's seen mermaids when he run aground
They carried him ashore when he was shure to drown
They say old Johnnies mad seawaters turned his head
But he alone survived all his colleagues dead
Old Johnny's seen King Neptune in the wildest storm
He alone survived while sailing round the horn
He carried him to safety while all around him died
Now Johnny tells his stories at the old portside
Old Johnnies been at sea 60 years or more
Sailed a million miles fucked a thousand whores
He's heard King Neptune sing he's heard the mermaids cry
They'll take him out to sea when it's his turn to die
Skull and Crossbones
Under skull and bones to always be alone
A killer storm might break or do the gallows wait
To never see your home always you will roam
To die on some far shore worst than the lowest whore
Skull and crossed bones
On each port you call the lowest of them all
Get syphilis for sure with each one of these whores
Then out you go again till death becomes a friend
You rob and steal and maim until you get the same
The Sea, Sick sea-shanties of sailors, portside whores, con-men, pirates, mobsters and devils. Pump organ, Celeste, Singing Saw and other objects washed up with the tide create a picture of the docks and depths around the Sea. A fragile siren calling all to their doom.
Credits:
Adrian Huge; Toys and Percussion
Martyn Jacques; Vocals / Stinged and Keyboard instruments
Adrian Stout; Double bass / Stringed instruments and Saw
H J Brandenburg; Keyboard instruments
Heinrich Dagefoer; Stringed instruments / Portuguese Guitar
Frank Wulff; Stringed and wind instruments
Recorded at O Ton Studio Hamburg
Engineered by Stephan Wulff
Mixed at Wolf Studio London by Dominique Brethes
Songs by Martyn Jacques
