After I'd sailed around the globe three times
                           I'd saved up enough to buy
           a cottage for my dad
                           then I worked construction, a ladder
                                                                slipped
                                       put out my back
                                                   now I have to report at nine
                                                                             a.m. every day
           at the disability office because they think
I'd otherwise spend the money on booze
           I told them what if I had broken a leg
                           would I still have to come and report
they looked at me sternly said you don't have a broken leg
                                       you've just got a bad back and so
                                                   you have to come and report
                           they called me sir
           probably because I look the way I do
                           A ship's cook, he's telling me the story of his life
but I'm in the spruce wood, thinking of him
                                                               his hair
                                      was shaggy, his nose like a scabby potato