[Verse 1] They found him where the breakers crash On a reef of bone and splintered mast No flesh to rot, no eyes to weep Just hollow sockets, secrets deep A rusted cutlass in his grip Barnacles clung to rib and hip When lightning split the midnight sky Old Skelly rose and would not die [Pre-Chorus] No breath to steal, no heart to quell He crawled straight up from a briny hell [Chorus] Yo-ho, rattle and roar! Skelly’s knockin’ at your cabin door! Clack go the bones on the blood-stained deck, He’s the curse you never can wreck! Yo-ho, hear him cry— “No grave can hold what will not die!” Raise the black and let it fly, Skelly sails the Black Tide high! [Verse 2] He don’t need rum, he don’t need bread He drinks the fear of the living instead With a grin carved wide from ear to ear He whispers doom you’re bound to hear Chain on his ankle drags behind From when they left him there confined Mutiny’s price was a shallow grave But bones remember — and bones enslave [Pre-Chorus] He taps the hull in the dead of night And laughs when men refuse to fight [Chorus] Yo-ho, rattle and roar! Skelly’s scratchin’ at your hull once more! Clack go the bones in the cannon’s gleam, He haunts your wake like a fever dream! Yo-ho, hear him cry— “Sink or swim, but you’ll all die!” Raise the black and let it fly, Skelly sails the Black Tide high! [Bridge – darker, slower] Down… down… to the ocean floor Where traitors sleep forevermore He keeps their names carved in his spine Each vertebra a mutineer’s sign When the fog rolls thick and the gulls won’t scream You’ll see his lantern’s ghostly gleam A skeleton grin in the salt-spray foam— Skelly’s found his way back home [Breakdown – chant style] Rattle the chains! (Rattle the chains!) Curse their names! (Curse their names!) No mercy shown! (No mercy shown!) Claim the throne! (Claim the throne!) [Final Chorus – big, stomping energy] Yo-ho, rattle and roar! Skelly’s king of the ocean war! Clack go the bones and the cannons reply, Thunder shakes the midnight sky! Yo-ho, hear him cry— “No grave can hold what will not die!” Raise the black and let it fly, Skelly rules the Black Tide high!
