Dark Old Waters   

© 1992 Gordon Bok, BMI

 

I wrote this for the film documentary of the short life of the schooner John F Leavitt, by the Atlantic Film Company.  It's two ways of looking at the birth of a sailing vessel. 

 

Sung with a leader and chorus;  the chorus lines are in italics

 

Don't be thinking of me,

All away and alone,   

On the rolling old sea,

On the foreign ground,

For I laid your keel and that's dandy for me

On the dark old waters, all alone.

 

Where you go, go well, and a fair wind home.

 

Don't be thinking of me on the rolling old sea

For I raised your frame and that's bully for me

 

And where will you go with your rail dipping low?

And where you may wander there's none can know

 

Don't be thinking of me on the rolling old sea,

For I hung your canvas and sent you to sea

 

And where will you be when the winter comes nigh?

And where will you be when I'm thinking of thee?

 

And how stands the wind? Will he come as a friend

And keep you from dangers that lie off the land?

 

And how stand the stars in the whispering dawn?

May they guide you and bless you and the seas sail you on

 

…Oh hey, oh ho, heave an oar and go

           

Oh where will you bide at the end of your ride,

And who'll sing you songs when I'm not at your side?

 

…Oh hey, oh ho, heave an oar and go

 

 

Dark Old Waters is recorded on the Bok, Muir, and Trickett albums First Fifteen Years Vol II and Water Over Stone and is also in the songbook One to Sing, One to Haul