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Am Am/G F E Am Am/G F E Am Am/G F E Am Am/G F E On the day we lost the America's Cup and the glory slipped away, Am Am/G F E Am Am/G F E I went for a walk in the city to see what the man in the street might say. F Am F Am F Am Dm I found a likely looking chap who agreed to talk with me. Am Am/G F E Am E Am Am/G F E He wore a beret, some coal-black shades and a billy goat goatee.
"There's news from Newport, sir," says I, "I'll give it to you straight.
Australia won the America's Cup - we had too little too late."
The little guy turned his lamps on me, all blood-shot red and blue:
"You say we lost the America's Cup? Did we lose the saucer, too?"
He said, "I did not know we lost the cup, and I'll tell you one thing more:
I didn't know we had the cup - what the damn thing's for?
For sailing boats, you're putting me on, and them Captain Andy hats,
And they called that rub-a-dub-dub a race, hell, I can walk as fast as that!"
"You say Australia won the cup; you tell me what it cost.
One thing you ain't told me, Jack, is who it is that lost?
Yeah, who are the souls who lost the cup and had to let it go?
The New York Yacht Club, did you say? Please tell me it ain't so!"
"So the New York Yacht Club blew the tin and the flag at half-mast waves.
Jack, please excuse my lack of tears but some of them cats owned slaves!
They got houses big as Rhode Island; they got blood as blue as the sky,
And I hope they wore their Sunday best to kiss the cup goodbye!"
"We had the cup how long you say? A hundred and thirty-two years?
And now Australia's won the cup and filled it with Foster beers.
And now the yacht club's dark and cold and now it's draped in black.
I hope it takes 'em twice as long to get the damn thing back!"
"Yeah, I feel for all them yacht club studs," says the little guy to me,
"The sight of that empty trophy case must be a heavy sight to see!
It must be hell to lose the cup when you had it for so long..."
He took his saxophone out of its case and he played a sad little song.
It went...
(Words and music by Tom Paxton, 1985)
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