Throw Out The Lifeline

Lyrics: Edwin Smith Ufford
Music: Edwin Smith Ufford

Played by Jerry in the JGB with Melvin Seals. Based on a hymn by Edwn Smith Ufford, apparently written after observing a lifesaving drill at Point Alllerton near Boston, Massachusetts in 1888. Thanks to Walter Keenan and Gene Baran for help with the lyrics - which vary quite a bit from one JGB version to another.

Chorus
Throw out the life line
Throw out the life line
Someone is drifting away
Throw out the life line
Throw out the life line
Someone is sinking today

Throw out the life line
Across the dark waters
There is a brother
That someone could save
Somebody's brother
Who will then dare
Throw out the lifeline
His perils to share

[chorus]

Throw out the life line
With hands quick and strong
Why do you tarry
Why must you wait so long
You you can see [him] sinking
Hasten today
Throw out the life line
He's drifting away

[chorus]

Throw out the life line
To danger fraught men
Someone's in trouble
Do the best you can
Help them to ascend
From the dark water
Tossed in the waves
Where darkness it flows

[chorus]
[chorus]
[chorus]