Eighteen Wheels
Words and Music Pat Drummond
For Paul Hayman and 'The Clipper' and 'The Hamilton Family', Whitton, Victoria
Dateline: Mildura, Balranald

A brigantine on a coal black river
racing westward through an arc of light
My faring stretching to the heavens
like a sail of white
I carry cargo from the Port of Melbourne
I set my course upon the Castlereagh
under a starlburst sky tonight
I will sail away

Chorus: Eighteen wheels
I'm like the tide that will never stop turning
twenty four gears
beneath the stars spinning cold and bright
and a heart
there is an engine of fire
roaring through the night

I woke this morning to a wheaten ocean
my vessel anchored in a roadside bay
Out of the north a wind that bore
the scent of new mown hay
And to the west, a summer storm went dancing
lakes of mallee lashed by golden rain
Was that an eagle or an albatross
that I saw sail away?

Chorus

I am a Captain on the currents of commerce
swept out on the seas of trade
I am the skipper of a 'double B'
A sailor on an inland sea
from Albany to Arno Bay
from Albury to Adelaide
I will sail my ship away

Seven hours through the sun bleached sand dunes
Seven hours through the seas of grain
Seven more and I'll be home at last in the harbour again

Chorus x 3

Chess Set Homepage / The Age Of Dissent / The Descent Of Age

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