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Great Britain has a marvelous houseboat scene, all sorts of hippies and assorted riffraff living their lives on the water, in a boat. It's a thriving community, perhaps largely because the government makes the whole thing pretty accessible -- you pay 600 pounds a year to British Waterways, and as long as you move at least every 2 weeks, you can live on the canals as a water-bound nomad indefinitely, and many do!

lyrics

I was staying with a friend in Hackney
One day I took a walk to a canal
I got swept up as I wrote
By a man in a trench coat
Who lived inside a ship called Happy Sal

I asked him if he missed life off the water
He said no, he didn't give that any mind
I just live here with the flow
Going where the rivers go
So glad to leave that landlord far behind

I want to live in a houseboat on the river
I want the locks to pick me up and let me down
I want the morning dew to make me shiver
As I ride from Hebden Bridge to London town

We moored on the banks right by the commons
Where we had front row seats to the fair
We stayed about a week
Then we drifted down the creek
Our destination: anywhere

Some folks just really want to be
Upstanding members of society
Well whatever floats your boat
Have a castle with a mote
While I drift along the valley to the sea

credits

from Everything Can Change, released May 18, 2013
Alejandro | upright bass
Jun | accordion, backup vocals

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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