Shipyard - Sting

Jimmy Nail Brian Johnson & Jo Lawry)

Ah me name is Jackie White and I'm foreman of the yard

And ye don't mess with Jackie on this quayside

Why I'm as hard as iron plate woe betide ye if yr late

When we have to push the boat out on a spring tide

Now ye could die and hope for Heaven but ye'd need to work your shift

And I'd expect ye's all to back us to the hilt

And if St Peter at his gate were to ask ye why yr late

Why you'd tell him that ye had to get a ship built

We built battleships and cruisers for Her Majesty the Queen

Super tankers for Onassis and all the classes in between

We built the greatest shipping tonnage that the world has ever seen

And the only life we've known is in the shipyard

All the platers and the welders and the boiler making crews

When they see that bugger finished on the slipway

All the hardship's soon forgot and we'll cheer as like as not

And the bairns'll wave their Union Jacks all day

It's a patriotic scene all that's missing is the Queen

But she said she couldn't make it of a Tuesday

Then something wells up here inside and you could take it in yr stride

But you wonder if you'll see another payday

For there's a mixture of emotions hatred gratitude and pride

And you hate yourself for crying but it's difficult to hide

For there's a sadness in the leavin' and ye worry what's ahead

And that worry never leaves ye keeps on nagging in yr head

And so ye pray to God for orders but ye'll worry till yr dead

Until they bury your remains in the blacksmith's shed

And the only life ye've known is in the shipyard

Steel in the stockyard

Iron in the soul

We'll conjure up a ship where there used to be a hole

And I don't know what we'll do if this yard gets sold

For the only life we've known is in the shipyard

Ah me name is Tommy Thompson I'm shop steward for the Union

Me dream is proletarian revolution

Comrades brothers fellow travellers and others

Class struggle is the means of dialectic evolution

Das Kapital's me bible and the ruling class are liable

And quoting Marx and Engels it's entirely justifiable

If the workers' revolution here is ever to be viable

And we become the rightful owners of this shipyard

So it's a one-day stoppage or an overtime ban

Or a work to rule for the Five Year Plan

'Til the means of production are safely in our hands

And we become the rightful owners of this shipyard

I'm not saying it won't be hard if the boss hands us me cards

When they try to close us down like other shipyards

And if industrial action only helps the competition

As I've heard the bosses bleating from their usual position

And I stand accused of anarchy disruption and sedition

Well ye'll never knock us down you reactionary clowns

When it's time for occupation of the shipyard

My name is Peggy White

And I've nursed ye through your injuries and yr cuts and wounds I've bound

Busted arms and busted heads

Broken backs and broken legs

I'd sooner put ye in a splint than have them put ye in the ground

And the fumes from all the welding where the poison air is hung

And the toxic radiation that's been blackening your tongue

I could give you's all an aspirin while you're coughing up your lungs

But it's all you'll ever get here in this shipyard

Ah me name is Davy Harrison I like a drink or two

You could ask me when it started but I haven't got a clue

I'm never sad or miserable I'm never ever blue

And I'll still be up tomorrow for the shipyard

I drink meself into a stupor and I wake up with two heeds

And then the missus starts complainin' about all me drunken deeds

Like when I got the train to Sunderland but found meself in Leeds

And I had to get up early for the shipyard

I once gave up the drinking was it 1963

But it seems as if sobriety was not the thing for me

It was the worst three hours I ever hope to see

Steel in the stockyard

Iron in the soul

We'll conjure up a ship where there used to be a hole

And the ship sets sail and the tale gets told

And the only life I've known is in the shipyard

Steel in the stockyard

Iron in the soul

We'll get the bastard finished and we'll end up on the dole

And we don't know what we'll do if the yard gets sold

The only life we've ever known is in the shipyard