CHORUS

A shanty waltz is a silly idea

Hard to believe that you can’t dance with sea legs.

See lads, with a peg leg, or when drunk on beer,

A shanty waltz is a silly idea!

When I was a young lad, I had only two loves
The beckoning sea called to me
But my feet sat in first, the fate of the worst
For my other love, dance, was at odds with the sea

CHORUS

It took me a short week to find myself steady
On my first job swabbing the deck
All-the-time bent down swabbing and I wasn’t ready
To lose my plié to a bloody bad back

CHORUS

I would get so badly beaten
All for interrupting a “nap”
Sure, I’d do it whilst they were a sleepin’
but I needed the quiet to practice my tap

CHORUS

You know what’ll ruin your day?
If your ship’ll get shot all to bits
You’ll find that you’ve lost your pas de bourree
To a cannonball shot by a man with no legs

CHORUS x 2