| Lyrics: | I was sixteen now and full of life, life was full of things to see
Grown up in my little town
and only seen Torquay
So it's off I went to Newton Abbot to get myself the deeds to
sign
My father took them and tore them up, saying "That's no life for a boy of
mine"
"John, my son, don't join the Navy, there's no good in it, I know
Plant your
seeds on solid ground and watch your harvest grow
John, my son, don't join the Navy, that's
clay that's underneath your skin
John, my son, don't join the Navy, don't go leaving your kith
and kin"
A boy must breathe and . . . or call himself a failure
So I would see
some foreign shores and I would be a sailor
So I went off to my mother for a week or more
and wiled and wheeled and won my way
Father put the pen to paper in the fields at lunch the
very next day |
