Jack Forbes 1982
Written for a BBC radio ballad, Wind Over Tilbury, about the switch from the old labour-intensive London docks to mechanised container ports and the upheaval it caused. Additional verses by Becky Wright & Miriam Attia
I once was a rigger and I worked like Hell (Rollin’ up, rollin’ down)
But now I’m a sailor with the OCL (Rollin’ down the river)
Chorus:
Rollin’ up, rollin’ down We’ll all get drunk in Tilbury town
In twenty-four hours we’ll turn around and go Rollin’ down the river.
The cargo comes in TEUs / That’s a twenty-foot box, boys, full of booze.
When first I saw a TEU / I wondered where they put the crew.
There’s a Tilbury girl called Kettle Jane / First she’s on the boil then she’s off again.
She’s got a friend called Teapot Anne / And when she wants she’ll take a man
But at the dockyard gate when it’s time to rest / You can pick ’em up if they say yesÂ