Rescue Mission

kristofferson • mcguinn • neuwirth • cassell

the captain touched his swagger stick up to his golden eye
and boogied through the vestibule while bidding us goodbye
the enemy surrounds us and our spirit's almost gone
the devil take the cavalry that sold us for a song

"there's chi - chies on the starboard lads and chi - chies on the stern
and hashish in the hookah pipes and bonny grass to burn
our mission is a secret but we're fools enough to try
we'll sail the bloody ocean boys or drink the bastard dry"

"if I had been a carpenter" the swarthy sergeant said :
"I'd never seen this ugly thing that hangs above my head :
the hell with all our heroes and the wounds they hope to show
I'm just a simple soldier son with one more year to go"

the albatross was tiring and the cook was in a stew
the filthy little cabin boy was whizzing in my shoe
the captain's wife was aging and the first mate heard her scream
when Tommy slipped tabasco in the captain's vaseline

"our time will soon be gone" he said : "it's all we've left to lose
we've shot our ammunition and we're all but out of booze
so here's to Irma Donegal and here's to Nellie Blye
and here's to my old friend" he said and kissed his ass goodbye

"give off ! give off, you sorry lot ! give off!" the captain cried :
"we've lost our bloody anchor and we're drifting with the tide
the swollen surf is pounding like a thousand cannon's roar
and I shake the hand of any man who guides us into shore"

"we're saved ! we're saved !" the soldiers said : "we're saved!" the sailors cried
and soldiers climbed aboard while sailors left from either side
some swabbies hit the minefield and the rifles got the rest
and somewhere there's a scooner sinking slowly in the west