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The Erie Canal is opened
from Lake Erie to the Hudson River
& the Seneca Chief canal boat
leaves Buffalo 10/26/1825
(and see 11/2)
We were forty miles from Albany
Forget it I never shall.
What a hell-of-a storm we had one night
On the E-ri-e Canal.
cho:
O the E-ri-e was a-rising
And the gin was a-getting low.
And I scarcely think we'll get a drink
Till we get to Buff-a-lo-o-o
Till we get to Buffalo.
The captain, he come up on deck
With a spy-glass in his hand;
But the fog, it was so fuckin' thick
That he could not see the land.
Our cook, she was a grand old gal,
She wore a ragged dress;
We h'isted her upon a pole
As a signal of distress.
The captain, he got married,
And the cook was tossed in jail;
And I'm the only son-of-a-bitch
That's left to tell the tale.
"The E-ri-e Canal," as sung by Richard Dyer-Bennett on 1601, R D-B
Records, 1962. Dyer-Bennett says this is a canal boatman's song. He
collected it in Maine and later heard a nearly identical version from Burl
Ives.
© Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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