Folk Queue

let there be songs to fill the air

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Champion At Keeping 'Em Rolling


Martin Carthy: Champion At Keeping 'Em Rolling


I am an old-timer, I travel the road
I sit in me wagon and lumber me load
Me hotel is the jungle, a camp me abode
And I'm well known to Blondie and Mary
Me liquor is diesel oil laced with strong tea
And the old highway code was me first ABC
And I cut me eye teeth on an old AEC
And I'm champion at keeping them rolling

I've sat in the cabin and broiled in the sun
Been snowed up on scaffs on the Manchester run
I've crawled through the fog with me twenty-two ton
Of fish that was stinking like blazes
From London to Glasgow to the Newcastle quay
From Liverpool, Preston and Bristol City
The polons on the road give the thumb sign to me
And I'm champion at keeping them rolling

You may sing of your soldiers and sailors so bold
But there's many and many a hero untold
Who sits at the wheel in the heat and the cold
Day after day without sleeping
So watch out for cops and slow down at the bend
Check all your gauges and watch your big end
And zing with your lights when you pass an old friend
You'll be champion at keeping them rolling

So watch out for cops and slow down at the bend
Check all your gauges and watch your big end
And zing with your lights when you pass an old friend
You'll be champion at keeping them rolling

--Ewan MacColl



Ewan MacColl: Champion At Keeping 'Em Rolling