From Buffalo to Troy

I've traveled all around this world
And Tonawanda, too,
Was cast on desert islands
And beaten black and blue;
I fought and bled at Bull's Run
And wandered since a boy,
But I'll never forget the trip I took
From Buffalo to Troy.

cho: For it was tramp, tramp, tramp
And tighten in the lines,
And watch the playful flies
As o'er the mules they climb,
Whoa back! Get up!
Forget it I never shall,
When I drove a team of spavined mules
On the E-ri-e Canal.

The cook we had on board the deck
Stood six feet in her socks
Her hand was like an elephant's ear
And her breath would open the locks;
A maid of sixty summers was she
Who slept upon the floor
And when at night she'd get to sleep,
O sufferin', how she'd snore.

One night on the Erie
I couldn't sleep a wink.
The crews were all bored down on me
Because I refused to drink.
Fearful storms and heavy fogs
Forget it I never shall,
But I'm every inch a sailor there
On the E-ri-e Canal.

As we arrived in Buffalo
Sally, Jack and Hank,
We greased ourselves in tallow fat
And slid right off the plank.
Sally's in the poorhouse
And the rest of the crew's in jail,
And I'm the only devil afloat
That's left to tell the tale.

recorded by Frank Warner, George Ward
from The Canaller's Songbook, Hullfish
RG
Apr98