What Have We Got? lyrics

Good people give ear to me story

Pay attention, and none of your lip

For I've brought you five lads and their daddy

Intending to build you a ship

Wallsend is war habitation

It's the place we was all born and bred

And there's nay finer lads in the nation

And none are more gallantly led

What have we got, but the buzzer in the morning?

Aye, and what have we got, but the laying of a keel?

And what have we got, but the cranes above us soaring?

The commotion and the clamor in the welding of the steel?

What have we got, but the mist upon the river?

Tell me, what have we got, but the noise inside the hold?

Oh, what have we got, but the arse end of the weather?

Where we work in horizontal rain, and shiver in the cold

[Chorus][x2]

What do you got? (What do we got?)[x2]

You've got nowt. We've got nowt else

What have you got, but the singing in the cables?

Oh, what have you got, but the ringing in your ears?

Aye, what have you got, but the telling of the fables?

And the memories of the ships, that we've been building donkey's years

[Chorus][x2]

What do you got? (What do we got?)[x2]

You've got nowt. We've got nowt else

Aye, you've got to die of something

It's written in your fate

You may as well die of a Tuesday

And woe betide you're late

What have you got, all you men what's fit and able?

What have you got, for the straining in your neck?

What have you got, when you're laid out on the table?

And the snapping of a cable when the rigging hits the deck?

What have you got, but the loyalty of brothers?

What have you got, but this union of the dock?

What have you got, a bacon sandwich from your mother?

Not a promise of another with the punching of the clock

[Chorus][x3]

What do you got? (What do we got?)[x2]

You've got nowt. We've got nowt else