Old Buccaneer - The Incredible String Band

sissie wouldn’t believe when I told her the old man was gone

the one who lived all alone in the shack on the shore

that’s so hard to find, so har to go past

he used to light our cigarettes and never tell anyone

he had blue tattoos and he’d tell us tall stories from the bottom of a rum glass

he’s got things to see on the spanish main he’s gone away for awhile

he’s gone skullduggering on the spanish main he’s gone away far away

thought I heard sails creaking as the stars paled

anchor chains clinking as the night failed way out on the bay

no one else knows how he crowed when they crowned him king of the cannibal isles

or how he’d really feel blind drunk at the wheel through a high hurricane

he could dupe the devil at dice and charm charmers whit his beguiling smile

how he fell in love in Lima and a schemer stole his pearly girl and broke his

heart again

now all the foes he killed call him in to fight with their beckoning bones

and all the gold he stole sparkles in the morning light

his sweet ladies are all alone

sissie dear let’s not go near the church today

the big bells tolling the hearse goes rolling the holy joes pray

as they lay him away

lived one too many winters cold cold weather

had to sail down to the south sea waters warm

his old bones there

let an old man go through

let an old man go through