Crooked Jack - The Blarney Lads

Come Irishmen

both young and stern

with adventure in your soul

There are better ways

to spend your days

than in working down a hole

The ganger′s blue-eyed

pet was I Big Jack could do no wrong

And the reason simply

was because

I could work hard hours and long

I was tall and true,

all of 6 foot 2

But they broke me across the back

By a name I′m known

and it′s not my own

for they call me Crooked Jack

I′ve seen men old

before their time,

their faces drawn and gray

I never thought

so soon would mine

be lined the self same way

I′ve cursed the day

that I went away

To work on the hydro dams

For sweat and tears

or hopes and fears

bound up in shuttering jams

They say that honest

toil is good

for the spirit and the soul

But believe me boys —

it′s for sweat and blood

that they want you down a hole