The Water Keeps

Intro

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm-mm

Low roll of the drum and the salt air bites

Verse 1

I left the harbor with a mermaid's pull

Green tail flicking and the tide turned full

Morning fog split where the big shape slid

Stronsay Beast and the rotted lid

Pre-Chorus

Globster on the shore just blubber and bone

The trawlers sewed a carcass they never owned

Coelacanth swims in the fossil blue

Altie slides where the swamp bends through

Chorus

Oh roll the deep boys roll the deep

Twenty-one names that the water keeps

Heave away lads heave away strong

Sing the monsters in our shanty song

Post-Chorus

Way hey

Way hey oh

Way hey

The water knows

Verse 2

Dobhar-chú sliced through the Irish moss

Megalodon still counts the cost

Champ's humps break Champlain at night

Ogopogo dragging green firelight

Pre-Chorus

Memphre howls in Quebec cold

Caddy rides with a horse's neck bold

Lake Van watches from Turkey's rim

San Clemente gone past the brim

Chorus

Oh roll the deep boys roll the deep

Twenty-one names that the water keeps

From Altamaha to the Thetis gray

The water takes and the water pays

Post-Chorus

Way hey

Way hey oh

Way hey

The water knows

Bridge

Thetis in the lake with the otter's hide

(She takes a bite)

Horse-head serpent and the squid's wide eye

(Down in the dark)

Every inlet keeps a secret curled

(Twenty-one below)

Every lake and ocean rules the world

Guitar Solo

Final Verse

So when you hear it bubble boy don't lean in

Every quiet water holds a sin

Log it in the guide from 1850 on

Twenty-one below and they all want to come along

Outro Chorus

Roll the deep boys roll the deep

Mermaid Nessie Kraken in the deep

Heave away lads heave away long

Here's your rock shanty sing the water wrong

Outro

Way hey

Way hey oh

Mm-hmm