Pynchon Music: The Whole Sick Crew (St. Louis)

When I was a young man I lived at an alehouse
and tugged at the tops all alone,
My parents were buried, my uncle he carried
the weight of my life like a stone.
One morning I woke up, said “fuck all!” to this life,
took off with a pint and my coat,
went down to the shipyard,
bought Uncle a postcard,
and started my life on a boat
I was to be (he was to be) an honest sailor
to drink on the land and work on the sea
and to keep my nose clean was a good life for me.
The man who swabbed decks pushed around holy stones,
‘Round his neck was a collar of white,
his black eyes would burn
while his crooked tongue turned out
the stories of Christ in the night.
He told us of hell and the way that we’d burn
and it seemed that he looked right at me,
He spoke of salvation, and we dumped out our rations
of grog in the emerald sea.
It was one of those nights where the wind weren’t quite right
and the rain fell like thick drops of blood,
And I’d not be surprised if the world up
and died and it buried itself in the mud.
The man who swabbed decks gave a strangle of fear
with his finger stretched out to the East,
where a black freighter loomed like the burden of doom
on the back of a terrible beast.
The ship pulled up broadsides and vomited death
and the cannons sang sea robbery,
they cut down our crew until there were only two,
just the deck washing preacher and me.
They gave us a choice at the tip of a sword
and the preacher chose heaven and death,
I must have chosen hell ‘cause I told them,
“Oh well, I’ll be with you until my last breath.”

1. Honest Sailor
2. Crimes at Sea
3. The Effigy Song
4. O’Keene the Mean
5. Girl at Every Port
6. The Slow Song
7. Captain Samson’s Song
8. The Vomits