The Bargee Song
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Trudging along a well worn track Trailing a barge and pole Off to the end of the world and back Never a rest at the goal Up to the hills and down to the sea Whose for a trip with a sleepy barge? By wharf and by quayside On Mersey or Deeside I’m strolling but rolling with dusty black loads Along by the lock-side and down by the dockside My smokey, old pokey, old dirty back roads The grey mare I’m leading Her burden unheading Is nodding and plodding While pulling her charge I drift down a slow path My life is the towpath I’m only a lonely old man With a barge Out from the town to the open fields Where all the yokels dwell Watching the crops that the country yields Waving to milkmaids as well Baccy a day, that Brown bread and cheese Where is a banquet the equal of these? By Gloucester or Devon Through Avon or Severn I ponder and wander To heaven knows where Where green willow tinges The brown water fringes I look on a new pound I’m following there By fenland and good land Past windmill and woodland My riches were bridges Bloom lightly or large My job where I take it My life what I make it I’m only a lonely old man With a barge |
| A 1937 performance of this song by the baritone Gerald Nodin can be viewed on the British Pathé website. |
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