The Bay of Suvla
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Not to be confused with the Australian ballad "Suvla Bay", "The Bay of Suvla" is a song written by Canadian folk punk band The Dreadnoughts and released on their 2017 album Foreign Skies, which they described as "a tribute to all the people who lived through the First World War, and to those who didn't make it through." Of the song, they wrote,
In 1915, regiments from England and Australia sailed for Turkey and for the Gallipoli peninsula. The mood was high. It should not have been, for they were all heading towards mass slaughter and a botched operation of monumental proportions. This battle was immortalized in Ewan MacColl’s "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda".
Lyrics
Based on the version performed on the Dec 2018 livestream.
Plucked from the finest of hamlets and dales
From Sydney to Bristol and Yorkshire we hail
Riding the finest of summertime gales
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla
{Chorus}
It's away, Suvla Bay
Haulin' away to the Suvla Bay
Fare thee well my pretty young maids
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla
Our wake it is bursting right over the pier
The engines do carry this bold chevalier
To face the brave Abdul Abulbul Amir
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla
{Chorus}
It's haul 'er straight over and hard to the right
the waters are clear and the sand it is white
Old Mr. Stopford will set us alight
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla
{Chorus}
Well the wind it is fair and the stars have aligned
We'll sell our salt cod for sweet olives and wine
And string up the Kaiser by Thanksgiving-time
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla!
{Chorus 2x}
We're bound for the Bay of Suvla
Recordings
YouTube Videos
Full Band Streams
- The Longest Johns Singing Stream from Newcastle (+special guests) (8 Dec 2018)
- The Longest Johns Singing Extravaganza Live from Belgium!! w/special guest (2 Jun 2019) Note: audio & video are severely out of sync; linked timestamp is the correct location for the audio