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The Watch
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Stan Rogers
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[Originally called 'The Midland' after a lake steamer called 'The City of
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Midland', this song is the true accounting of the final disposal of one of the
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Workers of the Lakes. I know Stan just couldn't resist the comparisons to how
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We treat our retiring workers!]
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They dragged her down, dead, from Tobermory,
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Too cheap to spare her one last head of steam,
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Deep in diesel fumes embraced,
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Rust and soot upon the face of one who was so clean.
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They brought me here to watch her in the boneyard,
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Just two old wrecks to spend the night alone.
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It's the dark inside this evil place.
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Clouds on the moon hide her disgrace;
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This whiskey hides my own.
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Chorus
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It's the last watch on the Midland,
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The last watch alone,
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One last night to love her,
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The last night she's whole.
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My guess is that we were young together.
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Like her's, my strength was young and hard as steel.
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And like her too, I knew my ground;
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I scarcely felt the years go round
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In answer to the wheel.
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But then they quenched the fire beneath the boiler,
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Gave me a watch and showed me out the door.
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At sixty-four, you're still the best;
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One year more, and then you're less
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Than dust upon the floor.
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Chorus
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So here's to useless superannuation
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And us old relics of the days of steam.
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In the morning, Lord, I would prefer
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When men with torches come for her,
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Let angels come for me.
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Chorus
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It's the last watch on the Midland,
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The last watch alone,
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One last night to love her,
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The last might she's whole.
Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage
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