///*****/// [Intro] A foghorn out past the point Rope against the mast [Verse 1] My father was a hard grey man Cut from the northern coast He gave me one embrace a year And he gave the sea the most He taught me knots and weather And the names of every star And he never asked me anything About who I really was And when my mother left us On a Tuesday in the rain He went out on the water And he did not speak again [Pre-Chorus] And he said the only words He ever gave me from inside He said the wind will take your hat, boy But sailors never cry [Chorus] So I did not cry at seventeen And I did not cry at war And I did not cry when Ellie left And closed the kitchen door And I stood there like a headland With the whole Atlantic wide And I nearly drowned in all of it Because sailors never cry Oh, sailors never cry [Verse 2] He got sick in the December And they took him off the boat And he lay there in the hospital Like a stranger in a coat And I sat there every evening And we talked about the tide And the price of diesel oil And every safe thing we could find And the clock went round the wall And the days ran out of us And still we spoke of nothing Like two men afraid of ghosts [Pre-Chorus] Then he took my hand one morning With a grip like frozen wire And he looked at me for one whole minute Like a man before a fire [Chorus] And he said I did not cry at seventeen And I did not cry at war And I did not cry when your mother left And closed the kitchen door And I stood there like a headland With the whole Atlantic wide And I lost the every bit of it Because sailors never cry Oh, sailors never cry [Verse 3] So he cried there in the bedclothes Like a boy of six or nine Forty years of northern water Coming out of him at last And I held him and I held him And I let the whole thing out And two hard men in a hospital Wept the sea and everything about And he died on the Thursday morning With the window going grey And I have never been so broken And so mended in a day [Pre-Chorus] So I tell it to my daughter When she is frightened in the night That the wind will take your hat, love But your crying is your right [Bridge] Do not carry it like cargo Do not lash it to the deck There is not a storm in all the world Worse than what you keep There is not a man alive out there Who is stronger for the keep [Guitar Solo] [Final Chorus] So I cried at forty-seven And I cry now and then And I cried out on the water Where I scattered him at ten And I stood there like a headland And I let the whole thing ride And I am still my father's only son And sailors sometimes cry Oh, sailors sometimes cry [Coda] Here is to the hard grey men On every hard grey shore Who loved us more than language And could never say it more May the wind take all your hats, boys May the water hold you high And may somebody be there holding you When you finally start to cry [Outro] A foghorn out past the point Rope against the mast And a father and a son Getting home at last
