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Tobacco Island Lyrics
[Chorus]
All to hell we must sail
For the Shores of sweet Barbados
Where the sugar cane grows taller
Than the god we once believed in
Till the butcher and his crown
Raped the land we used to sleep in
Now tommorow chimes of ghostly crimes
That haunt Tobacco Island
'Twas 1659 forgotten now for sure
They dragged us from our homeland
With the musket and their gun
Cromwell and his roundheads
Battered all we know
Shackled hopes of freedom
We're now but stolen goods
Darken the horizon
Blackened from the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
[Chorus]
Red leg down a peg
Blistered burns the soul
The floggings they're a plenty
But reasons there are none
Our backs belong to landlords
Where branded is there name
Paid for with ten shillings
Cheap labor never breaks
The silver moon is shinin'
Cools the copper blood
Where the livin' meet the dead
And together dance as one
[Chorus]
Agony, will you cleanse this misery?
For it's never again i'll breathe
The air of home
From this sandy edge
The rolling sea breaks my revenge
With each whisper a thousand waves
I hear roar
I'm coming home
Dark is the horizon
Blackened by the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
[Chorus]
All to hell we must sail
For the Shores of sweet Barbados
Where the sugar cane grows taller
Than the god we once believed in
Till the butcher and his crown
Raped the land we used to sleep in
Now tommorow chimes of ghostly crimes
That haunt Tobacco Island
They dragged us from our homeland
With the musket and their gun
Cromwell and his roundheads
Battered all we know
Shackled hopes of freedom
We're now but stolen goods
Darken the horizon
Blackened from the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
Blistered burns the soul
The floggings they're a plenty
But reasons there are none
Our backs belong to landlords
Where branded is there name
Paid for with ten shillings
Cheap labor never breaks
The silver moon is shinin'
Cools the copper blood
Where the livin' meet the dead
And together dance as one
For it's never again i'll breathe
The air of home
From this sandy edge
The rolling sea breaks my revenge
With each whisper a thousand waves
I hear roar
I'm coming home
Blackened by the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
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this song is completly different from anything else flogging molly has done, but i love it. The drums in the begging of the song get you all worked up and then the course comes in and all you wanna do is jump in the pit and fuck up lil emo kids. Anyway, it's about the british comming to ireland to take away the natives to work on the sugar plantations in Barbados...song's pretty self explanitory. Buy the new album though...it's sick
aghh i love this song. especially the violin break of course. damn bridget kicks ass
Gotta love the shots at Cromwell and the roundheads.
Damn lousy Puritans.
This song has alot of merit to it, if you know the background. Between 1652-1659, over 100,000 Irish were deported to Barbados and Virginia by the Protestant majority of England, resulting in over 18,000 deaths of men, women, and children. For more on the subject, pick up the hard to find book "To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland" by Sean O'Callaghan.
i love this song. this and 7 deadly sins are awesomeeeee
entire album rocks, but i wouldnt expect anything less from FM :>
My play count for this song on windows media is rediculously high...(61 in less than 2 months)
To loosely quote Dave @ the Chicago IrishFest "A man named Oliver Cromwell tried to wipe us off the face of the planet,... so let's dance on his grave"
I'm wondering why he chose the year 1659 though...He mentions Cromwell and the roundheads, but Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. The deportation didn't stop when Cromwell died, but the fact that he mentions cromwell in the year 1659 is a little weird
@aibam313
@aibam313
Irrelevant now as this post was 13 years ago but erm.. Cromwell died in 1712 he left the role of protector in 1658 but didn't die. But having had 13 years to learn your history correctly you probably know that by now.
Irrelevant now as this post was 13 years ago but erm.. Cromwell died in 1712 he left the role of protector in 1658 but didn't die. But having had 13 years to learn your history correctly you probably know that by now.
Cromwell raped our lands in the north and pretty much made it a Protestant sludge fuck...as it remains to this day.
I agree with sk8bboard, after hearing this song, the first thing I wanted to do was christianize the little black-haired plagued fucks. Spanish Inquisition style, of course.
@kgang-Fuck Yeah man!
@kgang-Fuck Yeah man!