The Gan Song circa 1961
Sung to the tune of Harry Belafonte's "Island in the Sun" (circa 1957)
Verse
One – to be sung with feeling by the assembled company.
Here we are spending a year on Gan,
Passing three hundred and sixty five days, getting a wonderful tan,
Here we are spending a year in the sun,
Getting a glimpse of a woman when we can.
We’ve got to be content if we want to keep our minds,
We’ve got to buy from the N.A.A.F.I. ‘cos there are no other
kinds,
We’ve got to do our flipping jobs, or else the C.O. binds:
There’s another U/S Britannia on the pan!
Verse
Two – to be sung by the member of the company nearest repat.
Look at me, waiting to leave at last,
Hoping to catch a Comet ‘cos the Brits aren’t very fast.
Look at me, longing to join my wife,
Hoping to have the holiday of my life,
I’ve got to wait for my relief, but still he hasn’t come:
I’ve got to keep on working ‘cos he will not leave his mum:
He thinks he’s bloody clever, but I think he’s just a bum:
But I’m thankful that my celibate year is past.
Verse
Three – to be sung by the most newly arrived member of the company.
I’m new to this, I’ve only been here a week,
And from my first impression it’s a place that’s rather bleak.
I’m new to this, sweating beneath the sun,
In short I’d say I’m really up the creek.
I stopped a night in Aden and I’ve got Khormaksar gut,,
I bathed without my flip-flops, and I’ve got a coral cut,
I left a girl in Blighty who was very lovely but –
I’ve got to pay her seven and six a week!
Verse
Four – All join in. It is an advantage, but not essential to know the tune.
Here we are spending a year on Gan,
Passing three hundred and sixty five days, getting a wonderful tan,
Here we are spending a year in the sun,
Getting a glimpse of a woman when we can.
Were very short of money, ‘cos we get no L.O.A.
We spend our evenings in the bar, a squandering our pay:
We wake up in the morning when we hear the tannoy say –
Get up to work as quickly as you can:
There’s another U/S Britannia on the pan!
So we’d better fix the b-st-d if we can!