I See Hawks In L.A. - The Salty Sea lyrics

The shallow blue Pacific And the continental shelf Soon gave way to the black and gray Of the mid-sea trenches with their scaly wenches And their tales of the mountain elf Tales of the mountain elf Me oh my, there's a tear in my eye Big as the salty sea Come on down, we'll all drown Down in the salty sea They laughed and they danced and they fiddled They sang their ancient songs They pulled me into the circle And said laddy, come along The black and the gray did soon give way To the tops of the waves and the sun dappled caves On the volcanic sands of a virgin land In the 18th century In the 18th century Five hundred nights of drinking With my dancing fairy friends I came out of the fog of the gentry's grog Woke up in the sand of Van Dieman's land In a planter's chains with a brand new name And they yoked me to the plow They yoked me to the plow I burned the eucalyptus And I carried off the stones For fourteen years I worked the fields And my fingers to the bone And then one night the planter Plucked me from my toil He said I understand you're a dancing man And fast with a fiddle, and smack in the middle of The parlor I lept for the Queen I lept for the visiting Queen Well the planter he was very well pleased And kind disposed to me He invited me in to his cozy den For cigars and porter and the social order Was the topic of his drunken screed The topic of his drunken screed And he told me: It took slavery to tame these wild lands It took slavery to train ten thousand hands To redirect the river To build the Grand Can*l The cotton fields, the pyramids, the well Now I ask you to forgive me For I struck a devil's deal My sheets are clean on this packet of steam For the Cape I am bound and Dublin town With southern gold in the bottom of the hold And my star crossed soul to trade for a load Of Fenian rebels and Carlow boys And a captain I will be Yes a captain I will be CHORUS