My Brother Sylveste

From: victoria.cross@undiscovered.com (VICTORIA CROSS)

Sorry for the problems. We are still newbies in cyberspace. Now, as to
lyrics of My Brother Sylveste. Here they are as I learned them paying
my dues in countless Irish-American pubs.


Chorus: That's me brother Sylveste (what's he got!)
A row of forty medals on his chest (big chest!)
Killed fifty bad men in the west, he knows no rest (Big as a man! Hell's
fire! Don't push! Just shove! Plenty room for you and me!)
He's got an arm, like a leg
And a punch that'll sink a battleship (Big ship!)
Takes all the army and the navy to put the winds up Sylveste.

Verse 1:
Have you heard about the big strong man?
He lives in a caravan.
Have you heard about the Jeffrey-Johnson fight?
Oh, what a hell of a fight!
You can take all the heavyweights you got (What do you got?)
You got a lad who could eat the whole lot.
He used to ring the bell in the belfry
Now he's gonna fight Jack Dempsey.

Ch: That's me brother . . . .

Verse 2:
Oh, he thought he'd take a trip to Italy
And he thought that he'd go by sea.
He jumped off the harbour at New York.
Sure, he swam like a man made of cork.
Now, he saw the Lusitania in distress (what'd he do?)
He put the Lusitania on his chest (Big chest!)
He drank all the water in the sea
And he walked all the way to Italy.

Chorus . . . .

Verse 3:
He thought he'd take a trip to old Japan
And they brung out a whole brass band.
He played every instrument they got.
Like a lad, sure he beat the whole lot.
Now, the old church bells will ring (Ding dong!)
And the old church choir will sing (Hallelujah!)
They all came out to say farewell
To my big brother Sylveste.

Ch. . . . .


It is no longer in my daily repertoire. But it is a crowd pleaser in
bars. The call backs are in parenthesis. Good luck.
It's good to have a few ringers in the crowd the first few times you do
the song to "train" others on the responses. There are "hand movements"
too, but I'm sure you can figure them out from the lyrics. (By the way,
at the  "ding dong" above. -- yep, make like you're ringing
a bell, on hallelujah, look like you're praying .. you get it ...)
In Solidarity,
Len Wallace, posting thru victoria.cross@undiscovered.com