Flogging Molly - Tobacco Island Lyrics






[Chorus]
All to hell we must sail
For the Shores of sweet Barbados
Where the sugar cane grows taller
Than the god we once believed in
Till the butcher and his crown
Raped the land we used to sleep in
Now tommorow chimes of ghostly crimes
That haunt Tobacco Island

'Twas 1659 forgotten now for sure
They dragged us from our homeland
With the musket and their gun
Cromwell and his roundheads
Battered all we know
Shackled hopes of freedom
We're now but stolen goods
Darken the horizon
Blackened from the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong

[Chorus]

Red leg down a peg
Blistered burns the soul
The floggings they're a plenty
But reasons there are none
Our backs belong to landlords
Where branded is there name
Paid for with ten shillings
Cheap labor never breaks
The silver moon is shinin'
Cools the copper blood
Where the livin' meet the dead
And together dance as one

[Chorus]

Agony, will you cleanse this misery?
For it's never again i'll breathe
The air of home
From this sandy edge
The rolling sea breaks my revenge
With each whisper a thousand waves
I hear roar
I'm coming home

Dark is the horizon
Blackened by the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong

[Chorus]





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Flogging Molly Tobacco Island Comments
  1. C.... B....

    This is kinda like Black Friday Rule. That's a good thing.


    I guess it makes sense now that I think about it that of the two times I saw them, one time they did Black Friday Rule and the 2nd time they did this. But never both, I guess they do one of these jam songs per show.

  2. b.... u....

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fqdpXqjlvRQ

    I broke a glass at mcgreeveys on st Patrick’s day to this song

  3. P.... ....

    Play 1.25x for the live version.

  4. A.... G....

    Ah to hell we must sail , for the shore's of sweet Barbados where the sugar cane grows taller than the god we once believed in.

  5. F.... C....

    I liked Flogging Molly long before Game of Thrones, but does this make anyone else think of the Battle of the Bastards?

  6. 1.... ....

    If you have a drop of Irish blood in you. You get it.

    1.... ....

    I'm Mexican but this band fuckin rocks!

  7. D.... X....

    You sing a song like this yet open your asshole to Muslims to rape you worse than Cromwell... yes to hell you will sail

  8. A.... C....

    Cromwell you dick...

  9. b.... ....

    That outro tho!!!

  10. M.... ....

    Thank you to my brother for another great song

  11. N.... Y....

    Long Live Ireland

    N.... Y....

    Nicholas Yeo Erin go bragh

  12. m.... e....

    to be drunk

  13. g.... ....

    The last 2 minutes are absolutely insane
    But the whole song is impossible not to dance to

    g.... ....

    It reminds me of Black Friday Rule in that way.

  14. H.... ....

    Sounds like Streams of Whiskey by the Pogues !

    H.... ....

    yeah kinda... u have to know the Pogues are the fathers of punk irish music

    H.... ....

    Love the Pogues...but it sounds nothing like it.

  15. D.... ....

    what is this disc's name

    D.... ....

    Within a mile of home

  16. F.... ....

    2:08 Just fucking amazing...

  17. R.... L....

    Mine and my husbands family came to America by way of Barbadoes We are both Irish Scotts

    R.... L....

    I’m an Irish Scott as well, but my ancestors couldn’t remember how they got to America. Must have been the whiskey.

    R.... L....

    News for you... The Ulster Scots or Scots Irish were the people who caused the native gaelic irish that this song is about to have to leave Ireland. Scots Irish and Gaelic Irish are very different. Scots Irish were colonists from lowland Scotland who were loyal to England and given land in Ireland that the English took from the native Irish

  18. S.... C....

    This song tells the tale of a sad time in irish history.

    S.... C....

    Unfortunately there is denial of this event happening coming from the New York Times,Slate, and other fake news sites. They say it's Nazi propaganda and that only Africans were real slaves

    S.... C....

    @Joe Torres people from all over the world have been slaves at one point... People are very ignorant.

    S.... C....

    This is actually pretty normal for war

    S.... C....

    Yes the forced indentured servitude of the Irish unfortunately continued in various forms from 1600 to the 1850s. This is distinct from slavery but still tragic and appalling.

    S.... C....

    The only sad part is they stopped fighting

  19. S.... J....

    @Chad Mars

    "The butcher and his crown RAPED the land we USED to sleep in"

    Past tense, man; have to check the context.

  20. M.... T....

    In Celtic Irish society of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, courts and the law were largely anarchist, and operated in a purely stateless manner. This society persisted in this manner for roughly a thousand years until its conquest by England in the seventeenth century. In contrast to many similarly functioning tribal societies (such as the Ibos in West Africa), preconquest Ireland was not in any sense "primitive": it was a highly complex society that was, for centuries, the most advanced, most scholarly, and most civilized in all of Western Europe. A leading authority on ancient Irish law wrote, "There was no legislature, no bailiffs, no police, no public enforcement of justice... There was no trace of State-administered justice.[1]

    All "freemen" who owned land, all professionals, and all craftsmen, were entitled to become members of a tuath. Each tuath's members formed an annual assembly which decided all common policies, declared war or peace on other tuatha, and elected or deposed their "kings." In contrast to primitive tribes, no one was stuck or bound to a given tuath, either because of kinship or of geographical location. Individual members were free to, and often did, secede from a tuath and join a competing tuath. Professor Peden states, "the tuath is thus a body of persons voluntarily united for socially beneficial purposes and the sum total of the landed properties of its members constituted its territorial dimension.[2] The "king" had no political power; he could not decree or administer justice or declare war. Basically he was a priest and militia leader, and presided over the tuath assemblies.  
    Celtic Ireland survived many invasions, but was finally vanquished by Oliver Cromwell's reconquest in 1649-50.

    M.... T....

    i´ve been with the provos - and no, the high king was a king... there´s nothing anarchic in that. not at all. what you refer to is the ownership of land by individuals - which didn´t make sense before cromwell (may he burn in hell) introduced the plantations. Tiocfaidh ár lá !

    M.... T....

    ....actually the english crushed the scotts and got them to betray their celtic brothers... not REALLY the same ;)

    M.... T....

    Michael Thomson. Thank for the social studies lesson.

    M.... T....

    @Joseph Kinnan Aye, and it'll no be the last, cousin.

  21. h.... ....

    I'll drink to this Paddy's day lads!!! :D

  22. C.... M....

    "Was 1659, forgotten now for sure..." Oliver Cromwell died in 1658.

    C.... M....

    oooh shittt

    C.... M....

    @Chad_Mars Cromwell's son was pillaging Ireland by this time

    C.... M....

    Cromwell was hot

  23. R.... S....

    I just saw these guys Live at Solfest in Cumbria. I travelled 6 and a half hours. That night I lost a game of blackjack and downed 2 shots of Absinthe 70%ABV. Awesome show though. I got caught in the moshpit

  24. I.... ....

    all to hell we must sail for the shores of sweet Barbados where the sugar cane grows taller the the god we once believed in!

  25. s.... b....

    BOO to Oliver Cromwell!

  26. S.... P....

    I loved hearing this song live on their St. Paddy's day concert in Tempe.

  27. J.... S....

    people were so ambitious in these times but were also extremely lazy and hence slavery..

  28. M.... ....

    srry had a few

  29. M.... ....

    HAPPY ST PATTIS DAY

  30. L.... M....

    adoro l'Irlanda il suo popolo e la sua musica.Grazie....

  31. j.... ....

    they would sound good doing basically any dubliners or dropkick murphies song

  32. L.... M....

    Flogging Molly should do a cover of Rocky Road To Dublin... Like if you agree.