Breakfast in Hell - Slaid Cleaves

In the melting snows of Ontario

Where the wind’ll make you shiver

It was the month of May up in Georgian Bay

Near the mouth of the Musquash River

Where the bears prowl and the coyotes howl

And you can hear the osprey scream

Back in '99 we were cutting pine

And sending it down the stream

Young Sandy Gray came to Go Home Bay

All the way from P.E.I

Where the weather’s rough and it makes you tough

No man’s afraid to die

Sandy came a smilin', Thirty Thousand Islands

Was the place to claim his glory

Now Sandy’s gone but his name lives on

This is Sandy’s story

Young Sandy Gray lives on today

In the echoes of a mighty yell

Listen close and you’ll hear a ghost

In this story that I tell, boys

This story that I tell

Now Sandy Gray was boss of the men who’d toss

The trees onto the shore

They’d come and go till they’d built a floe

100,000 logs or more

And he’d ride 'em down toward Severn Sound

To cut 'em up in the mills for timber

And the ships would haul spring summer and fall

Till the ice came in December

One Sabbath Day big Sandy Gray

Came into camp with a Peavey on his shoulder

With a thunder crack he dropped his axe

And the room got a little bit colder

Said, «Come on all you, we got work to do

We gotta give 'er all we can give 'er

There’s a jam of logs at the little jog

Near the mouth of the Musquash River»

With no time to pray on the Lord’s day

They were hoping for God’s forgiveness

But the jam was high in a troubled sky

And they set out about their business

They poked with poles and ran with the rolls

And tried to stay on their feet

Every trick they tried, one man cried

«This logjam’s got us beat!»

But Sandy Gray was not afraid

And he let out a mighty yell

«I'll be damned, we’ll break this jam

Or it’s breakfast in hell, boys

Breakfast in hell!»

Now every one of the men did the work of ten

And Sandy scrambled up to the top

He is working like a dog heaving 30 foot logs

And it looked like he’d never stop

They struggled on, these men so strong

Till the jam began to sway

Then they dove for cover to the banks of the river

All except for Sandy Gray

Now with thoughts of death they held their breath

As they saw their friend go down

They all knew in a second or two

He’d be crushed or frozen or drowned

They saw him fall and they heard him call

Just once and then it was over

Young Sandy Gray gave his life that day

Near the mouth of the Musquash River

But Sandy Gray was not afraid

And he let out a mighty yell

«I'll be damned, we’ll break this jam

Or it’s breakfast in hell, boys

Breakfast in hell!»

East of Giant’s Tomb there’s plenty of room

There’s no fences and no walls

And if you listen close you’ll hear a ghost

Down by Sandy Gray Falls

Through the tops of the trees you’ll hear in the breeze

The echoes of a mighty yell

«I'll be damned, we’ll break this jam

Or it’s breakfast in hell»

And Sandy Gray lives on today

And he let out a mighty yell

«I'll be damned, we’ll break this jam

Or it’s breakfast in hell, boys

Breakfast in hell!»