Lyrics

Once I was a sailor on a whaler on the ocean I left this cold climate just to feel some forward motion I was sixteen, I knew nothing, but I learning pretty fast In the Orient I jumped ship, living by my wits at last I gambled my last wages in a bamboo opium den Lost my cherry to a kohl-eyed blur, in a minute I was spent Hopped a freighter to Sri Lanka with a cache of rusty guns Got the money, but they got funny Hit the mainland on the run I rode for seven weeks on horseback to Arabian desert shoes Then I swapped that knackered nag for drugs and treatmеnt for my sores I damned my soul in despеration Stole my host's new car to use And I drove up to the Lebanon and sold the diplomats their booze Paid over the odds for a stowaway ticket from the Mediterranean coast And I swam to Greece with the captain's niece with one day's food at most And there we had our final argument, I was in the wrong I know But a hothead boils off its intelligence, and lovergirl head to go I got the oven train, upright overnight till I got to Switzerland Hitched a ride with a future suicide out selling Krugerrands His hand on my knee, I decided to leave, well we were in Amsterdam Did the washing in a Chinese kitchen to pay my way back to my land I'm telling you this 'cause I've been around and now I know the ropes I've burnt my hands in foreign lands, learnt while spurning all my hopes Don't be lured by exotic siren song and tell your girlfriend too It's too late to undo the damage And nothing now is really new