Traditional & Folk Songs with lyrics & midi music www.traditionalmusic.co.uk 
Crooked Jack 
(alternate:) 
Crooked Jack 
Come Irishmen both young and stern With adventure in your soul There are better ways to spend your days Than in working down a hole
 I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2 But they broke me across the back By a name I'm known and it's not my own They call me Crooked Jack 
The ganger's blue-eyed boy was I Big Jack could do no wrong And the reason simply was because I could work hard hours and long 
I've seen men old before their time Their faces drawn and gray I never thought so soon would mine Be lined the self same way 
I've cursed the day that I went away To work on the hydro dams For sweat and tears or hopes and fears Bound up in shuttering jams 
They say that honest toil is good For the spirit and the soul But believe me boys it's for sweat and blood That they want you down a hole 
recorded by Dick Gaughin