Billy Joel - The Downeaster "Alexa"

[Swede]

Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound

We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone

So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep

I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I've got people back on land who count on me

So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel

Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they tell me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in swordfishing here.

I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me

[Chan790]

1. A song about the overfishing of New England's coastal waters.

I know the problem well. The dumb thing is that the area has become a tourist mecca, if they'd clean up the boat and invest in a cooler full of beer (the stupid yuppie tourists like that the boat is ugly and reeks of cod; it's "real&quot they could take people out pleasure-boating for about $50/person/hour or run whale-watching tours or do just about anything but fish and make a living but they're all one-track mind: fishing. There ain't no fish and there ain't no money in fishing.