Recorded by: Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers
Written by: Traditional Arrangement: Ray Johnson
Lyrics
Attention all true lovers
Come listen to my song
Although you may be bound for sea
For I won’t delay you long
Give me one more drink of whiskey
To treat those sailor tars
And soon I will be sailing in
The light of the western stars.
Those sailor tars being bound for the north
Where the stormy winds do blow
Although they were lighthearted
Not knowing where they go
They don’t know but they’re riding
All in those handsome cars
As when they hoist their canvas by
The light of the western stars.
Then a Newfoundland boy spoke up and said
“There’s a girl now I must leave
To go and seek my fortunes
If it is God’s holy will
I’ll drink a health unto her while I sail on
By the light of the western stars.”
Now as we steered along our course
All for some distant land
Those western stars they guided us
To America so grand
But when I receive my fortunes
Back home again so far
To seek that girl and marry her
By the light of the western stars.
But when I arrived back home again
They old me she was dead
Those words she said while parting
They still sound in my head
When you are sailing on some ship
And underneath her spars
I will pray till your return again
By the light of the western stars.
And since my love is dead and gone
I can no longer stay
St. John’s it seems so dismal
To me this very day
No other in this world for me
Since she do sleep so far
But I’ll think of her when I sail on
By the light of the western stars.
