For some reason I had lines from songs about London stuck in my head.
When I'm working earlies I have the radio on low to help me sleep.
I go to bed 2-3 hours before the 'rents, but I daren't wear my earplugs, in case I sleep through my 05.00 alarm.
So it's quite possible a London montage seeped into my brain.
Anyway.
Baker Street, fine.
London Calling, fine.
Waterloo Sunset, double fine.
Even Lily Allen's LDN (my favourite of her songs) fine.
And okay, some random ones which would never have been on the radio, mostly by Carter USM: 24 Minutes to Tulse Hill; Only Living Boy in New Cross; The Taking of Peckham et al.
And then.
And then.
What crops up in my long buried reptile mind?
Streets of London.
I've always found it poignant.
But I had to go and listen to it again.
Found a YouTube vid which made me cry til I had sore scoured eyeballs.
Because most of the images they used weren't recent.
They were the people I saw on the streets of Waterloo where I spent school holidays. Men older than Grandad was at the time, who must have fought in WWII.
Bare feet and blankets. Passed out in the afternoon sunlight because it was too cold to sleep at night. Maybe alkies, but yay or nay they were probably damaged.
Nanny wouldn't give them a penny. She said she only respected people who worked for a living. Her interpretation of the Gospel of St Matthew was that we always gave money to buskers and pavement artists. I'm not criticising her for that. You cannot give money to everyone you meet. Or food, unless you really can make bread and fishes stretch from Tower Bridge to Westminster.
It just hurt seeing familiar things with older eyes.
I couldn't have helped them then and can not now.
But looking back I was oblivious.
Quote:
Have you seen the old man
In the closed-down market
Kicking up the paper,
with his worn out shoes?
In his eyes you see no pride
Hand held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She's no time for talking,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
In the all night cafe
At a quarter past eleven,
Same old man is sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his tea-cup,
Each tea last an hour
Then he wanders home alone
So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind
And have you seen the old man
Outside the seaman's mission
Memory fading with
The medal ribbons that he wears.
In our winter city,
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn't care
|