Come Irishmen both young and stern
With adventure in your soul
There are better ways to spend your days
Than in working down a hole

I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2
But they broke me across the back
By a name I'm known and it's not my own
For they call me Crooked Jack

The ganger's blue-eyed pet was I
Big Jack could do no wrong
And the reason simply was because
I could work hard hours and long

I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2
But they broke me across the back
By a name I'm known and it's not my own
For they call me Crooked Jack

I've seen men old before their time
Their faces drawn and gray
I never thought so soon would mine
Be lined the self same way

I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2
But they broke me across the back
By a name I'm known and it's not my own
For they call me Crooked Jack

I've cursed the day that I went away
To work on the hydro dams
For sweat and tears or hopes and fears
Bound up in shuttering jams

I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2
But they broke me across the back
By a name I'm known and it's not my own
For they call me Crooked Jack

They say that honest toil is good
For the spirit and the soul
But believe me boys it's for sweat and blood
That they want you down a hole

I was tall and true, all of 6 foot 2
But they broke me across the back
By a name I'm known and it's not my own
For they call me Crooked Jack