She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were five of us aboard her when she finally was awash.
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.
Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to them, they let her rest below.
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.
Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.
All spring, now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and
porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and birded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain.
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.
For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day. . .
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to yoI can't control this urge so I risk what I wager,
I lost to a chicken shit never was panty sniffer,
Got my eye on a cool hand and I wonder about his dog of a day,
Wanted to be a big shot real hot down with the domino,
You know calling on instict calling the bluff,
Telling a tale ten stories high to the operative,
I figured the numbers underpressure I played by the seat of my pants,
Then fate took a twist quietly wiley faking it waiting for a fluke,
Waiting for a sign by now boggle eyed,
If I believe I will receive leaning on the ever lasting tree,
Hanging in the hands of fate down with the domino,
I'm no, down with the domino, I'm no casino casanova with the good luck eyes,
it's hard to tell who's friend or foe when you go down like the domino,
One track mind just digging 'till I find,
The gold at the end of the rainbow just keep on going,
Though twisted up inside her fool heart takes over and jumps on for the ride,
Down with the domino,ÂÂÂ
I need the roulette to make me forget,
Rotating random eyes roll in tandem,
Lady look illusive but I do what I can better be a day as a lion,
Than a life time as a lamb down with the domino, down, you know.
Moloko Lyrics