Good people, give ear to me story
Pay attention, and none of your lip
For I've brought you five lads and their daddy
Intending to build ye's a ship
Wallsend is wor habitation
It's the place we was all born and bred
And there's nay finer lads in the nation
And none are more gallantly led (1, 2, 3!)
What have we got, but the buzzer in the morning?
Aye, and what have we got, but the laying of a keel?
And what have we got, but the cranes above us, soaring
The commotion and the clamour in the welding of the steel?
What have we got, but the mist upon the river?
Tell me, what have we got, but that noise inside the hold?
Oh, what have we got, but the arse end of the weather
Where we work in horizontal rain, and shiver in the cold?
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
What have ye got, but the singing in the cables?
Oh, what have ye got, but the ringing in your ears?
Aye, what have ye got, but the telling of the fables
And the memories of the ships, that we've been building donkey's years?
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
Aye, you've got to die of something
It's written in your fate
Ye might as well die of a Tuesday
And woe betide you're late
What have ye got, all you, men, what's fit and able?
What have ye got, for the straining in your neck?
What have ye got, when you're laid out on the table
And the snapping of a cable when the rigging hits the deck?
What have ye got, but the loyalty of brothers?
What have ye got, but this union of the dock?
What have ye got, a bacon sandwich from your mother
Not a promise of another with the punching of the clock?
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
What do ye got? (What do we got?)
You've got nowt, we've got nowt else
