Champion At Keeping Them Rolling - Eric Andersen

I am an old-timer, I travel the road

I sit in the wagon, and lumber’s my load

My hotel’s the jungle, my cab’s my abode

And I’m well known to Blondie and Mary

My liquor is diesel oil laced with strong tea

And the old highway code was my first ABC

And I cut my teeth on an old AEC

And I’m champion at keeping them rolling

I’ve sat in the cabin and broiled in the sun

Been snowed up on scaffs on the Manchester run

Crawled through the fog with my twenty-two ton

Of fish that was stinking like blazes

From London to Glasgow to the Newcastle quay

From Liverpool, Preston and Bristol City

The polons on the road give the thumb sign to me

For I’m champion at keeping them rolling

You may sing of your soldiers and sailors so bold

But there’s many and many a hero untold

Who sits at the wheel in the heat and the cold

Day after day without sleeping

So watch out for cops and slow down at the bend

Check all your gauges and watch your big end

And zig with your lights when you pass an old friend

You’ll be champion at keeping them rolling