American Old Time Song Lyrics: 08 Oh Fred The Boat Is Turning Over
Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 8
Oh, Fred! the Boat is Turning Over.
Written and sung by Fred. Roberts.
I happened one afternoon,
'Twas in the month of May,
While walking with a pretty girl,
I thus to her did say:
Now will you go out for a row,
The river to explore;
She said she would, 'twould do her good,
As she'd not been there before.
Spoken-And like a fool I hired a boat, but, directly we got
on the water she made a grab at me, and said:-
Chorus.
Oh, Fred! the boat is turning over,
Oh. Fred! you naughty man, she cried;
Oh. Fred! I wish I'd thrown her over,
Ere I ever took her up the river for a ride.
I pulled away with all my might,
But we had not gone far,
Before the girl began to scream,
And said, she'd tell her ma.
And as these words escaped her lips,
A steamer came close by,
Which caused our boat to pitch and toss,
And her again to cry:- Chorus.
I felt uneasy in my mind,
I scarce knew what to do;
I thought the girl would die of fright,
And so would all of you.
She said: dear Fred, oh! take me home,
Here I cannot remain;
And then there came another wave,
Which made her shout again.
Spoken-Shout! " Well I should obliterate, to procrastinate,
shout." That wasn't no name for it; just imagine the horrible
position I was in, with my hands engaged with the two sculls of
the boat, and the one skull of an agitated and sea-sick young
lady reclining on my manly chest, and no chance for one to obĀtain even a platonic hug without risking a cold water bath. She
said: Oh! my, what would mamma say, if she knew I was all
alone on these turbulent and tumultuous billows. I thought that
was pretty good for a girl that wasn't feeling well, so I fired her
iuto the bottom of the boat, and made all steam for land, and
every time I felt inclined to weaken on the stroke, I heard a
small puuuy voice that said:-Chorus.