Ha'penny Standup

Ha’penny Standup
(Music and Lyrics by Craig Bickhardt and F. C. Collins)

Four months rocking on a three-mast schooner
Two things I need, get ‘em one at a time
Over the side of this rotten oak bucket
Wash the salt from my beard, wash the pain from my mind

Square Johns bring their ladies treasure
Some Jims wine before they dine
Bully lads win hearts telling brave tales of battle
But a Ha’penny Standup is just enough to get me by hard times

I don’t ask no questions of you babe
I don’t wanna hear no lies
Every time I say goodbye to you
Another piece of me dies

Dark eyed island lady
The tale’s too sad to tell
Sleeping alone is doing harm to my body
I believe I need a woman to keep me well
When a gull gets gray, he’d like to stay
In the best place he’s flown above
How might a sailor ever find real love
When a Ha’penny Standup is all he’s ever known

I don’t ask no favors of you babe
I don’t place no blame
Every time I say to goodbye to you, girl
It’s a goddamn shame

Ha’penny Standup, on the pier and smiling
She don’t care to know where I’ve been
Sing me ‘way, hey love me now, before the wind’s arising
Around the horn we sail again