All I remember of this is Jim Couza singing it to me in a parking lot ins. E. Massachusetts many years ago. I remember that he somehow imparted the heft of the harmony to me at the same time. I've sung it off and on with Ann Muir, so the 'cellamba part here is taken from her flute harmony. Jim said that Alasdair wrote it about the Thames River barges.
When you come afloat before the morning gulls
And you're towing through the summer weather,
And you keep no clock but the ebb and flow,
She's a gentle, easy flowing river.
Oh, I've punched my way through the deep
Spring gales,
When you stand on board your barge and shiver,
And go creeping slow 'gainst the weight of
water
With the ebbtide pushing down the river.
And it's cold on board in the Winter's dark
And you think that the night will last
forever,
And you crouch and wait below in your cabin
'Til the dawn tide takes you down the river.
And I've stood on deck in the lightning
storms,
When the big waves bump the boats together,
And the thunder shakes the sea below you (*)
And you're working on the open river.
Well, she ebbs and flows with her rain and
oil:
When London's gone, she'll flow on forever.
To the sea and brine, to the black salt water,
She's a gentle, easy flowing river.
(Repeat last verse)
(*) I've seen this. -GB)