A Drinking Song
Original version (4:37)
[on Promenade]
Back at the house, a bottle is found
And opened in honour of those who have drowned
While we who have not are stricken with guilt
And dutifully see that not one drop is spilt.
We’re drinking to life, we’re drinking to death,
We’re drinking till none of our livers are left,
We’re wending our way down to the spirit store,
We’ll drink till we just can’t drink anymore.
Raise your glasses high!
Drink the cellar dry!
Well, bloody my nose and blacken my eye,
If it ain’t some young Turk in search of a fight
And Chanticleer’s chest is sagging with pride
For honour has yet to be satisfied.
Well, Heaven be thanked! we live in an age
When no man need bother, except on the stage,
With ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’
And definitely not tonight.
“I can still remember when I was just a kid,
I was free to do what I wanted to but I never, ever did.
So now with years of discretion reached, may we not forget
‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’ for there’s life in the Old World yet.”
There’ll always be an England, Oh yes there will!
An Ireland and a France, Indisputably!
A Liechtenstein and Finland, Absolutely right, completely undeniable.
And we have only one chance. Yum, yum.
Then this young man with an unhealthy tan Then this young man with an unhealthy tan
Puts a drink in my hand Puts a drink in my hand
And says: “I understand And says: “I understand
You’re in search for the place You’re in search of the place
To continue the chase To continue the chase
Of the heavenly taste. Of the heavenly taste.
I suggest in that case I suggest in that case
You all come with me That you all come with me
To my place by the sea To my place by the sea
Where the glasses shall be Where the glasses shall be
Overflowing with free Overflowing with free
Alcoholic delights, Alcoholic delights,
And free love if you like, And free love if you like,
For what point has this life For what point has this life
If you can’t realise your dreams?” If you can’t realise your dreams?”
Oh, raise your glasses high Oh, raise your glasses high
And drink the town dry! And drink the town dry!
We’ll drink beyond the boundaries of sense
We’ll drink till we start to see lovely pink elephants
Inside our heads,
Inside our beds,
Inside the threads
Of our pyjama legs.
So don’t shoot till you see the reds of our eyes
And an army of elephants marching behind.
From the day I was born till the night I will die
All my lovers will be pink and elephantine!
My beauty!