When I came home from the Anzio shore
Got me a job at a Shiretown store
I married up quick, we had the one son
My limit was hit and my race was run
We raised him right
We put him through school
With a gentle embrace and an iron rule
Our world was shattered when we lost our son
To the business end of a gangster's gun
How do you go from a burned out light
To chasing anonymous ships in the night?
How do you live with a lingering ghost?
Oh, with a run on the banks
Oh, with a run on the banks
When they buried my boy of twenty-two years
I swore I'd do more than choke on my tears
So I hardened up my heart, I took up the oath
And looked for ways to avenge us both
Me and his mother, we never were the same
She left me one spring and I am to blame
Forgot about living, forgot about her
Forgot about love and the way things were
How do you go from a burned out light
To chasing anonymous ships in the night?
How do you live with a lingering ghost?
Oh, with a run on the banks
Oh, with a run on the banks
Sixteen guns, twenty-five kilos
A couple thousand rounds when we run her aground
Crew bailed out and headed for the hills
With a barrel of blow and a mountain of pills
No arrest in her majesty's waters
No victory for the mothers and fathers
Of the young and the damned
The guilty walk free
To continue their trade on a cruel black sea
How do you go from a burned out light
To chasing anonymous ships in the night?
How do you live with a lingering ghost?
Oh, with a run on the banks
Oh, with a run on the banks