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Wave Over Wave by Jim Payne, Janis Spence, Fergus O'Byrne
Wave Over Wave
Tuning:E A D G B E
Capo:no capo
[Verse 1]
G Em G D
Me name's Able Rogers, a shareman am I,
C G C D
on a three-masted schooner from Twillingate Isle
G Em G D
I've been the world over, north, south, east, and west,
C G C D
but the middle of nowhere is where I like it best
[Chorus]
G
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow.
C Em C D
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
G Em G D
There's no other life for a sailor like me
C G C D
but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea
G Em D G
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
[Verse 2]
G Em G D
The work it is hard and the hours are long,
C G C D
but my spirit is willing, my back it is strong.
G Em G D
And when the work's over then whiskey we'll pour,
C G C D
We'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore
[Chorus]
G
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow.
C Em C D
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
G Em G D
There's no other life for a sailor like me
C G C D
but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea
G Em D G
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
[Verse 3]
G Em G D
I'd leave my wife lonely ten months of the year,
C G C D
She made me a home and raised my children dear
G Em G D
But she'd never come out to bid farewell to me
C G C D
Or ken why a sailor must sail the salt sea
[Chorus]
G
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow.
C Em C D
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
G Em G D
There's no other life for a sailor like me
C G C D
but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea
G Em D G
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
[Verse 4]
G Em G D
I've sailed the wide oceans four decades or more
C G C D
and many times wondered what I do it for
G Em G D
I don't know the answer, it's pleasure and pain
C G C D
with life to live over, I'd do it again
[Chorus]
G
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow.
C Em C D
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
G Em G D
There's no other life for a sailor like me
C G C D
but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea
G Em D G
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
[Dialogue] (spoken)
Well, I can’t complain. I haven’t had it as hard as some, God knows, and for the
bit of time you’ve
been around in the past sixteen years, well, you’ve been a good man. I remember
the year we married.
It was a good year. You were workin' for my father and it seems to me that I had
you all to meself
every minute of every day and all the sweet long hours of the night. I think
that was the happiest
year of my life.
But by the spring of the following year, just after my birthday it was, well, you
got to itchin’ after
something; and in no time at all you’d gone down and you’d signed up on the Mary
Elleanor. 'Twas then I
knew I was married to a sailor. I couldn’t even bring myself to go down to say
goodbye to ya.
No, I’m not complainin', we’ve always had a roof over our heads and we’ve never
wanted for very much.
I always said, now, that I never had it as hard as May. Her husband, Jack, well
he’d only be home one or two
days out of every year. That’s when he was workin' on the coastal boats. My
dear, when he’d come home on
the Prosporo she’d have to go down there and get cause he was too blind drunk to
make his way home by himself.
And I’ll never forget the night I was over at Nan’s, the night Poppy Rogers came
home. Poppy Rogers,
gone eleven years, we hadn’t heard a word from him. We didn’t know what had
happened to him, sure we
gave him up for dead. Well, that night Nan just looked out the window and she
saw him comin’ up the
path and all she said was, “Put the kettle on, Frank’s home.”
But I do wish you’d been here with me when Garry died. My God, that was a hard
winter. Flu. Epidemic
proportions they said on the radio. I remember the night mom and I laid him out,
and you mother came
over to. Garry was your favourite really. Anyway, that night I sat up with him.
I sat up in that big
old chair your brother made and I must of dozed off because about four or five
o’clock in the morning I
woke up and just for an instant you were there. You were bending over him,
kissin' his check.
You were back in port six months later and you gave me Kevin, and Kevin had the
croup, and he coughed
and he bawled for a solid year straight. He had me rafted. He had me clear drove
off me head. Then,
the following year, well you were only home for a week. I got Rose out of that
visit.
But you’d always send me lovely presents. Sometimes a year goes by and I have no
word, no letters or
such, but always bits and pieces from here, there and everywhere. A lovely shawl
arrived for me in
the mail today. Three yards of beautiful coloured silk. I wonder where it’s
from? Spain? Morocco?
Some place I’ve never been to. Ah, it’s gorgeous, and the smell of it, it puts
me in mind of warm winds
and people speakin’ in foreign tongues. But sure, where am I going to wear it?
I s'pose now I’ll put
it on when I go out in the garden diggin’ up a few turnips or when I’m making a
bit of soap out of lye.
I’ll go light the candle for ya now. It will always be here in the window to
guide ya home. I’ll always
be here for ya, God willing. Ya know, when all is said and done, for the bit of
time you’ve been around
in our married life, you’re the only man I’ve ever had. You’re the only man I
ever wanted.
[Chorus]
G
Where it's wave over wave, sea over bow.
C Em C D
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
G Em G D
There's no other life for a sailor like me
C G C D
but to sail the salt sea, boys, sail the sea
G Em D G
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
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