[Intro] [One low male lead, almost whispered] [Soft male choir beneath him, long held harmony] There’s a bay no lantern crosses, Where the moonlight will not stay, And the fishermen speak softly Of the bones beneath the bay. [Verse 1] A cutter sank there years ago, In weather black and wild, No bell was heard, no wreck was found, No body, man or child, But every winter, close to dawn, When wind has gone away, A song comes drifting through the fog From somewhere in the bay. [Chorus] Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, Still singing low where the cold tides lay, No mast above, No sail in sight, Only voices under water in the dead of night, Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, No sailor wise will anchor there and stay. [Verse 2] Old Martin swore he heard his name Come floating through the mist, A voice he knew from twenty years, A dead man he had kissed, He cut the line and raised the sail, And left before first grey, But would not speak of what he heard Beneath that sleeping bay. [Choir] [Very soft harmony] Beneath the bay, Beneath the bay, They remember every name. [Verse 3] One night we drifted far too close, The sea was smooth as glass, No gull above, no rope that stirred, No cloud that seemed to pass, Then from below came thirty men In harmony so low, Not loud enough to hear the words, But clear enough to know. [Bridge] [Lead voice alone] No living throat could hold that note, No breathing chest that long, And every man aboard our ship Knew death had learned a song. [Chorus] Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, Still singing low where the cold tides lay, No mast above, No sail in sight, Only voices under water in the dead of night, Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, No sailor wise will anchor there and stay. [Verse 4] We turned before the dawn could break, And never looked behind, But all that day the tune remained Like salt inside the mind, And sometimes now, when seas are still, I hear that same refrain, And wonder if the drowned sing on Because they wait in vain. [Final Chorus] [Choir fuller, still restrained] Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, Still singing low where the cold tides lay, No grave was dug, No bell was rung, So under black water their last song is sung, Bones in the bay, Bones in the bay, And one day every sailor learns the way. [Outro] [Lead nearly alone] There’s a bay no lantern crosses, Where the moonlight will not stay. [Choir, fading] And the dead are still singing Beneath the bay.
