Tuesday, June 12, 2007

What I'm listening to right now

The Mary Ellen Carter by Stan Rogers, on Between The Breaks, Live.

Probably my favourite track on one of my favourite albums. A fantastic song about beating the odds, and beating back adversity. It has got me through more than a few times when I've been feeling like the last chorus was my life. Now, I'm just listening because it came up at random, and I felt like sharing how much I love the song!

N.

She went down last October in a pourin' drivin' rain.
The skipper he'd been drinking, and the mate he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.

There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter'd rise again.

Well the owners wrote her off, not a nickel would they spend.
"She gave twenty years of service, boys, and met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to us, so let her rest below,"
And they laughed at us and said we'd have to go.

But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock.
She's worth a quarter million afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar we swore we would remain,
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Rise again, rise again,
That her name not be lost to the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her 'til the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Well, all spring now we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in a hard-hat suit, and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet, and the currents here are slow,
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.

We patched her rents, stopped up her vents, dogged hatch and porthole down,
Put cables to her fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow noon we'll hit the air and then take up the strain
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Chorus

Oh, we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times a'livin' through the gale.
And the laughing drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave,
They won't be laughing in another day.

And you to whom adversity has dealt a final blow,
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go.
Turn to and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Chorus
Rise again, rise again,
Tho' your heart it be broken, and life about to end.
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.
Rise again, rise again.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

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