THE HOT-GOSPEL PLANE
(First published in “Centreline” 1966; original version composed 1964)
If you’re going to Salvation climb aboard
If you’re going to Salvation, climb aboard!
Come and join the congregation, and await the Conflagration on our Super-Constellation,
Climb aboard!
Go to glory on a Charter, Climb aboard.
Go to glory on a Charter, Climb aboard.Come and be a Holy Martyr, go to Glory on a Charter with the blessing of IATA
Climb aboard!
Where’s the ’plane that SATAN fled on? (Climb aboard.)
Oh we’ll find the plane he fled on! Climb aboard!
Yes we’ll find the plane he fled on cause we’re gonna meet it head-on on the way to ARMAGEDDON!
Climb aboard!
Now in no uncertain fashion climb aboard!
Oh in no uncertain fashion climb aboard!
Oh in no uncertain fashion we will free from Evil Passion every Sinner that we crash on
Climb aboard!
Now the DEBBIL’s growin’ thinner, climb aboard!
Now the DEBBIL’s growin’ thinner, climb aboard!
Now the Debbil’s growin’ thinner cos he’s waitin’ for his dinner of INCINERATED SINNER!
CLIMB ABOARD!
Every SINNER-MAN will wonder, Climb aboard!
Every SINNER-MAN will wonder, Climb aboard!
He will shake with fright and wonder when he hears the Holy Thunder when with JOY we BURST ASUNDER!
CLIMB ABOARD!
Yes, our Holy Captain reckons, ALL ABOARD!
Oh our Holy Captain reckons, ALL ABOARD! (HALLELUJA!)
Yes the HOLY CAPTAIN RECKONS, Where the Calvert Lighting beckons we’ll be GLORY-BOUND IN SECONDS!
ALL ABOARD! – HALLELUJA!!
SISTER GLORY, BRING THE MATCHES, WE’RE ABOARD! (GLORY, GLORY!!)
SISTER GLORY BRING THE MATCHES, WE’RE ABOARD! (ALLELUJA!)
SISTER GLORY STRIKE THE MATCHES,
WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CATCHES SHUT THE DOOR AND LOCK THE LATCHES, PRAISE THE
LORD!!
A L L E L U J A …!
[EDITOR’S NOTE. This poem was very much revised over the years. From memory, the first version of stanza 1 read as follows:
If you’re going to Salvation climb aboard!
If you’re going to Salvation, climb aboard!
If you’re going to Salvation via civil aviation, here’s our Super-Constellation,
Climb aboard!
It was followed by the following stanzas, which Croghan seems later to have rejected:
There’s a hundred and eleven, climb aboard!
There’s a hundred and eleven, climb aboard!
There’s a hundred and eleven and they’re going straight to heaven on our Super DC-7,
Climb aboard!
There’s another party going, climb aboard!
There’s another party going, climb aboard!
There’s another party going, they’ll be going hardly knowing we’ve collided with their Boeing,
Climb aboard!
The following two stanzas came somewhere after st.5 in the version above
If you want to meet the Master, climb aboard!If you want to meet the Master, climb aboard!
Do not pray to meet the Master, use our guaranteed disaster, though it’s messier it’s faster,
Climb aboard!
The final stanza read:
When the Holy Spirit catches, praise the Lord!
Oh it’s leaking through the patches, climb aboard!
Oh it’s leaking through the patches, do not wait until it catches, Halleluja bring the matches,
Climb aboard!]
