Small Island

Traditional

 

Another song I got about 40 years ago from a young shipmate, Harold Williams, from South Caicos.  I had asked him how folks in the British Virgin Islands felt having their country owned by people so far away who never even saw it, and he said "Oh, we got a song about that." And sang this.

 

I can't find that I ever wrote it down, even in the logs I kept.

 

Gordon – Spanish guitar

 

            Small Island, go back where you come from

            Small Island, go back where you come from

            O when you come by the one and the two and the three

            You taking our food and you leaving us hungry

            Small Island, go back where you come from

 

Number one: no rice in this land

Number two: no rice in this land

Now when you come by the one and the two the three

You taking our food and you mash down the jungle

Small Island, go back where you come from

 

Winston Churchill going 'cross through this English Channel

Winston Churchill going 'cross through this English Channel

Now when you got no guns and got no revolver*

Bottle and stick kicking hell in Gibralter

Small Island, go back where you come from

 

*refers to a speech Churchill made during WWII

 

 

 

Small Island is recorded on the album Dear To Our Island