Nine Dog Team (January 68)
Another creation from the first Shackletons recce. The old "Sixteen Tons"
song deserved the explorers treatment but despite the blues and the
complaints of the new version, the writing was tongue in cheek - to impress
the ignorant - for I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
Now you're up each morning at six forty five
Eight hours to travel and nine dogs to drive
Harness 'em up shout "Weet away"
If the surface is good its twenty miles today
Chorus:
With your nine dog team and your ten day load
The bleak ice cap is your only road
Heave boys pull now, don't you slack
Or you'll feel this rope across your back.
All you see is white and blue
For ice and sky is your only view
The country's so flat and never a change
Though a hundred miles or more you range
If its deep soft snow then you curse and you swear
You blast those dogs but they don't care
You drive 'til your voice goes hoarse and cracks
But miss one call and they stop in their tracks
Summer draws to a close and the sun sinks low
The ice is hard and the wild winds blow
Its cold all day but its colder at night
And even in your tent you can get frostbite
Now you've got to return before the winter comes by
If your still out there then you'll surely die
It wouldn't happen to you says your vanity
But the blizzard don't care about humanity.