The Good Ship Lifestyle Lyrics

Faeroes, Bailey, Fair Isles, Hebrides
Malin, Rockall, Shannon, Sole
Trafalgar, Finisterre, Irish Sea, Biscay
Humber, Portland, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne


This is the Good Ship Lifestyle
All my friends jumped ship
I elect me the captain
This is the loneliest voyage I've ever been on

Up in the crow's nest
Over there! I see land!
First mate? There is no first mate
This is the Good Ship Lifestyle

Sail away from the world
Sail away from the world

So steer a course
A course for nowhere
And drop the anchor
My little empire
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere
This is the Good Ship Lifestyle
I fly my very own flag
TV dinners for one at the captain's table

Repel all the boarders!
Draw the curtains tighter
Where's the crew? There is no crew
This is the Good Ship Lifestyle

Sail away from the world
Sail away from the world

So steer a course
A course for nowhere
And drop the anchor
My little empire
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere

Dogger, Fisher, German Bight; Viking, Thames, Dover, Wight
Dogger, Fisher, German Bight; Viking, Thames, Dover, Wight
Dogger, Fisher, German Bight; Viking, Thames, Dover, Wight
Dogger, Fisher, German Bight

So steer a course
A course for nowhere
And drop the anchor
My little empire
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)

So steer a course (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
A course for nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
And drop the anchor (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
My little empire (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere (This is the Good Ship Lifestyle)
I'm going nowhere

[Outro/Interlude]
(They come up with a flimsy excuse by saying: it's the public or the union, the law.)
(We know. We've been outside the law for twelve months.)
(The law says we must cross the picket line. We didn't cross the picket line.)

(You don't know how I feel when I'm lying in bed at night wondering where tomorrow's dinner's coming from.)
(And you don't know how it feels when your son tells you to sell his bike so you can pay the electricity bill.)
(I feel like you can only be trodden on so much before you start fighting back.)

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About

Genius Annotation

On “The Good Ship Lifestyle,” British anarchist rock group Chumbawamba take to task political ideologues who espouse values which they themselves don’t practice. In the liner notes to Tubthumper, their eighth studio album (on which the track featured), the group elaborated on the title’s significance:

“Lifestylism” is the practice of wrapping yourself in a blinkered, self-perfecting, ideologically-sound cocoon. The captain of The Good Ship Lifestyle rarely leaves his bedroom. He makes pronouncements on how other people should live but doesn’t keep his own rules. His idea of politics is not to fight the Power but to fight the imagined enemies on his own side.

Credits
Release Date
September 1, 1997
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