Bare Knuckle Boxers: McAlpine's Fusileers

McAlpine's Fusileers

back to songbook | text-only lyrics to this song

D G D A D
D G (Bm) G (x2)
D G D A D

D                     G
As down the glen came McAlpine's men
D                  A     D
with their shovels slung behind them
D                         G     
twas in the pub that they drank their sup
(Bm)                          G 
or down in the spike you will find them
D                           G          
they sweated blood and they washed down mud
(Bm)                     G 
with pints and quarts of beer
D                    G               D          A   D
and now we're on the road again with McAlpine's Fusileers


I stripped to the skin with dary Finn
down on the Isle of Grain
With Horseface Toole, i learned the rule
no money if you stop for the rain
for McAlpine's god is a well filled hod
with yer shoulders cut to bits and seared
and woe to he who looks for tea in McApline's Fusileers

how well i remember when Bear O'Shea
fell into a concrete stair
what Horseface said when he saw him dead
well it wasn't what what the rich call prayer
"I'm a navvy short!" was his one retort
that reached unto my ears
when the goin gets rough well you must be tough
in McAlpine's Fusileers

-break-
D                              G
I've worked til the sweat near had me beat
     D        A          D
with Russian, Czech, and Pole
D                                 G     
in the shuttering jams 'neath the hydro dams
(Bm)                          G 
or underneath the Thames in a hole
D                              
I grafted hard
      G 
and I got me cards
(Bm)                          G 
and many's the ganger's fist across my ears
D                                G               
if you pride yer life well don't join by christ
D          A   D
McAlpine's Fusileers

if you pride yer life well don't join by christ
McAlpine's Fusileers
if you pride yer life well don't join by christ
McAlpine's Fusileers