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Navigator Lyrics
The canals and the bridges, the embankments and cuts,
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
They never drank water but whiskey by pints
And the shanty towns rang with their songs and their fights.
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
They died in their hundreds with no sign to mark where
Save the brass in the pocket of the entrepreneur.
By landslide and rockblast they got buried so deep
That in death if not life they'll have peace while they sleep.
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
Their mark on this land is still seen and still laid
The way for a commerce where vast fortunes were made
The supply of an Empire where the sun never set
Which is now deep in darkness, but the railway's there yet.
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
They never drank water but whiskey by pints
And the shanty towns rang with their songs and their fights.
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
Save the brass in the pocket of the entrepreneur.
By landslide and rockblast they got buried so deep
That in death if not life they'll have peace while they sleep.
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight.
The way for a commerce where vast fortunes were made
The supply of an Empire where the sun never set
Which is now deep in darkness, but the railway's there yet.
The morning is here and there's work to be done.
Take your pick and your shovel and the bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
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What a fantastic song! All about the men who actually built the railways, the thousands of hard working, hard drinking, hard fighting navvies. I love how despite the fact that the rails may have been ripped up from countless different lines, as the capitalist destruction of our railway continues forthwith, the cuts and embankments are still there. The working man's endevours have outlived the entrepreneurs!
"Navvie" is, of course, a contraction of "navigator", because many of the canal companies were named the "Such-and-such Canal and Navigation Company, Ltd."
And has anyone ever considered the irony of the fact that it was English capitalists who taught the Irish how to use dynamite?
Always wondered why they were called Navvies- good point about the dynamite too
Always wondered why they were called Navvies- good point about the dynamite too
And, has anyone considered that this is the best hangover song ever?
@nathan1149 I guess, as long as you don’t need to wake up and build the railroads lol
@nathan1149 I guess, as long as you don’t need to wake up and build the railroads lol
A great song with a Victorian, Dickensian vibe.
I live steps from the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO world heritage site, built mostly by Irish labourers. There are many barely- marked, possibly mass graves along the banks of the canal where the navvies, who likely died of Malaria from the swamps they built through, are buried. My hometown, Ottawa ( then Bytown), owes pretty much everything to those men.
[Edit: Spelling/grammar]