The Incredible String Band Follow

Sissie wouldn't believe, when I told her the old man was gone
The one who lived all alone in the shack on the shore
That's so hard to find, so had to go past

He used to light our cigarettes and never tell anyone
He had blue tattoos and he'd tell us tall stories
From the bottom of a rum glass

He's got things to see on the Spanish main
He's gone away for awhile
He's gone skull daggering on the Spanish main
He's gone away far away

Thought I heard sails creaking as the stars paled
Anchor chains clinking as the night failed way out on the bay

No one else knows how he crowed
When they crowned him king of the cannibal isles
Or how he'd really feel blind drunk
At the wheel through a high hurricane

And charm charmers with his beguiling smile
How he fell in love in Lima and a schemer stole his pearly girl
And broke his heart again

Now all the foes he killed, call him in to fight
With their beckoning bones
And all the gold he stole sparkles in the morning light
His sweet ladies are all alone

Sissie dear, let's not go near the church today
The big bells tolling the hearse
Goes rolling the holy Jose pray
As they lay him away

Lived one too many winters cold, cold weather
Had to sail down to the south sea waters warm
His old bones there
Let an old man go through
Let an old man go through

Sissie wouldn't believe, when I told her the old man was gone
The one who lived all alone in the shack on the shore
That's so hard to find, so had to go past