Print

For whiskey and bad companyHas made a fool of meSo, come all young men, my warning taleWon't you shun the piracy?Oh, me name, 'tis William HollanderAs you will understandI was born in the County of WaterfordDown by her golden strandWhen I was young and in me primeGood fortune, upon me, shoneAnd my parents raised me tenderlyI was their only sonOh, me father bound me to a tradeIn Waterford's fair townHe bound me to a cooper thereBy the name of William BrownI served my master faithfullyFor three long years or moreTil I shipped aboard The Ocean QueenBelonging to TramoreAnd when we reached Bermuda's isleI met with a Captain MooreHe was the skipper of the Flying CloudSongtexteFrom out of BaltimoreHe asked me if I'd sail with himOn a slaving voyage to goTo the burning shores of AfricaWhere the sugar cane does growFor whiskey and bad companyHas made a fool of meSo, come all young men, my warning taleWon't you shun the piracy?'Twas after five weeks we arrivedOff Africa's burning shoreFive hundred of them weeping blacksFrom their native lands, we toreWe loaded them in iron chainAnd stowed them down belowScarce eighteen inches to the manWas all they had to showWell, the fever came and the plague, tooAnd it killed them off like fliesWe dragged their bodies up on deckAnd we dumped them in the tideIt was better for the rest of themIf they had died belowThan to wear the chain or feel the lashIn America forever moreFor whiskey and bad companyHas made a fool of meSo, come all young men, my warning taleWon't you shun the piracy?Oh, we sacked and we plundered many a ship Both frigates and liners, tooUntil the British man-o-warThe Dungeness, hove in viewShe fired a shot across our bowWe sailed before the windThe chain-shot brought our mainmast downAnd we fell far behindSo, it's now to Newgate we are boundAnd we're the ones in chainsFor the sinking and for plunderingAll along the Spanish MainThe judge, he found us guiltyWe were condemned to dieSo, to all my friends, take heed by meLead not such a life as ISo, it's fare thee well, old WaterfordAnd to the girl I do adoreI'll never kiss your lips againOr squeeze your breasts no moreFor whiskey and bad companyHas made a fool of meSo, come all young men, my warning taleWon't you shun the piracy?For whiskey and bad companyHas made a fool of meSo, come all young men, my warning taleWon't you shun the piracy? Aus Songtexte Mania