I've been a sailor for many long years and I've made the ocean my wife
I'm wed to the sea and I can't stay on land and I've nothing to show for my life
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan
When I was sixteen I had me a wife, a beautiful little redhead
I was gone for two years and she married another because she had heard I was dead
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan
When I was nineteen I had me a sweetheart she gave me a fine healthy boy
But they died in a plague while I was in Norway and now in my life there's no joy
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan
I went back to me home to visit me mother me family home in Kintire
But the house it burned down and me neighbors all told me me mother she died in a fire
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan
One night in a bar I ran into me father, a scurriless [bad word] was he
He said boy don't you hate me instead you should thank me I gave you your love for the sea
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan
It's a lonely life being a sailor, a lonely life for a man
life full of strife when you're sailing the ocean from Liverpool to Japan