The Rambling Rover
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"The Rambling Rover" is a song written by Scottish musician Andy M. Stewart, frontman of the folk band Silly Wizard, and first released on his 1982 solo album By the Hush. It was included on several live albums from Silly Wizard and has become well-known within the folk community.
The Longest Johns were featured on a cover of the song by Dutch folk band Harmony Glen for their 2020 album Sing Me a Song. (Harmony Glen's banjo player Sjoerd Van Ravenzwaaij also collaborated with TLJ on their YouTube video for Salonika).
Lyrics
Based on the recording with Harmony Glen.
{Chorus}
Oh, there're sober men a-plenty
And drunkards barely twenty
There are men of over ninety
That have never yet kissed a girl
But give me a ramblin' rover
From Orkney down to Dover
We will roam the country over
And together we'll face the world
There are those who feign enjoyment
From merciless employment
Their ambition this deployment
From the minute they left the school
And they save and scrape and ponder
While the rest go out and squander
See the world and rove and wander
And they're happier as a rule
{Chorus}
I have roamed through all the nations
Took delight in all creation
I've enjoyed a wee sensation
Where the company, it was kind
Though when partin' was no pleasure
I've drunk another measure
To the good friends that we treasure
For they always are on our mind
{Chorus}
If you're bent with arthiritis
And your bowels have got colitis
You've got gallopin' bollockitis
And you're thinkin' it's time you died
If you been a man o' action
Though you're lying there in traction
You may gain some satisfaction
Thinkin', "Jesus, at least I tried."
{Chorus x2}