The Greasy Wheel Trad with additional words by Ian Campbell

If you want to join a Braunston boat A thing you never should do You get the strap tied round your neck And the tow rope round your toe If you want to join a fly boat And show them a clean pair of heels Then you’re all right to work all night Upon the greasy wheel Come all you jolly fly men It is a great delight To work upon a steam boat Grafting day and night But if you can steer a fly boat And keep her out of the field Then you’re all right to work all night Upon the greasy wheel If you want to join a fly boat You’ll have to change your ways You’ve got to keep her spotless You’re cleaning night and day Between Camp Hill and Norlip She gleans from funnel to keel Then you are fit to do your bit Upon the Greasy Wheel If you want to join the fly men On the Brum to London run Just picture you in the white and blue You’ll have no time for fun You give ’em a blast to let you past They’re tempted never to yield But they know you’ve got the right of way Upon the greasy wheel

The origins of this song are unclear. David Blagrove, apparently, collected fragments of the lyrics and the tune from an old boater in the bar of the Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction on the Coventry Canal in the early 1960's and put it back together again filling in the blanks (information from Bru Peckett). Charles Parker of the BBC, similarly, claims to have collected it in fragmentary form for use in a radio programme about life on the narrow-boats (information from Ian Campbell recording). This song captures the brief glory of the men who manned the steam barges at the end of the last century. Their glory was brief because the steam power which gave them their ascendancy had already, in the form of the locomotive, made the canal system obsolete. Recorded on : Something to Sing About - The Ian Campbell Folk Group - Pye Records (1972) Re-issued on CD by Wooded Hill Recordings HILLCD 21 (1997)