Lyrics Go Down You Red, Red Roses - Burl Ives

Go Down You Red, Red Roses

Come sailors listen unto me:
Chorus: Come down you bunch of roses, come down
A lovely song I’ll sing to thee.
Chorus: Oh, you pinks and posies,
Come down, you red, red roses, come down.
A whale is bigger than a mouse;
Come down you bunch of roses, come down
A sailor’s lower than a louse.
Oh, you pinks and posies,
Come down, you red, red roses, come down.
The cook he rolled out all the grub:
One split pea in a ten-pound tub.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-three
We set sail for the Southern Sea.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-five
I was breathing but not alive.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-seven
We sailed up to the gates of Heaven.
Saint Peter would not let us in.
He sent us back to earth again.
All this is true that I do tell.
The ship we’re on’s a livin' Hell.
The captain’s covered o’er with fur;
Has grown a tail like Lucifer.