This ain’t the reel life. . .
No f**cking fishery!
Codfish not their line,
So shipshape the freighter must be.
Twenty-nine guys
Look up to the skies and see:
It’s gonna pour, boy! (pour, boy!); they see that it’s windy
But they’re seasoned chums, season’s No-
vember—ply waters, though. . .
Any way the wind blows. . .hope they don’t get shattered at sea.

Mama’s* killed many men,
Needs no gun against the head;
Her awesome power’s to dread.
Mama’s life-taking’s random
As she will demonstrate this fateful day.
Mama [sound of wind howling]
In the wires the wind does cry;
If they’re not back in time, there will be sorrow. . .
Carry ore, carry ore.

It’s too late: their time has come.
The living will repine;
Bodies way down. . .cannot find.
Goodbye, every swabbie—they had to go,
Have to leave ’em all behind—that’s the said truth.
Mamas [wailing sound] to church with the kids go.
Like the wind, they cry
They wish their men were not in that stormy squall.

[flashback]

And now a little Fitzgerald story’s the plan.
Scares ensued, scared ensued—
They were doomed; each man planned so.
Thunderbolts and lightning would have flashed less frighteningly.
Galleon swayed so. . .
Galleon swayed so Fitz a-rolled;
Mad winds took toll.

In water poured, “Boys, too rough for feeding!”
More water poured, “Boys, it’s been good ya meeting!”
Where was the liking of the god wind-beating?

Seasoned chums seen that No-
vember’s winds were bold.
Witch killer: November’s winds also cold, very cold,
Witch killer: November’s wind’s make ships roll, make ’em roll.
Witch killer: November’s winds take a toll, take a toll,
Cold and bold, then rolled, over rolled (wreckage),
Over the boat rolled, over rolled,
In the water cold:
Bold, cold, toll, shoals-no, boat o’er rolled.

O, Mama Nature, Mama Nature, Mama Nature took a toll:
Beat, tub broke up. . .twixt devil and the deep blue sea;
The sea: Gitche Gumee.

[water sunders the bridge]

She sank fast as a stone, she went down in no time;
For these loved ones, the church bells twenty-nine times chime.
So praying is then the refuge, praying.
Each time ships go out, every time ships go out, there’s fear.

After the Fitz shattered,
What we’ve come to see,
After all the chatter, there’s been a raft of parody.
Every day, more Fitz shows.




*Nature