The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122032 Message #2671704
Posted By: BK Lick
04-Jul-09 - 07:11 PM
Thread Name: Songs About the Disappearing of the Trains
Subject: ADD: Requiem for Steam (Dave Goulder)
Here are the lyrics as posted on the Dave Goulder website. There's also an audio clip there.
REQUIEM FOR STEAM (Dave Goulder)
When the signals were green did you sit by the line And watch for the fire in the sky Then a scream and a roar and the shivering ground And old Oliver Cromwell goes by Did you fancy your hand at the throttle and brake With the steam driven into your soul Or to stand with the driving wheels under your feet And shovel a mountain of coal
Well they've silenced the whistle; the coal is all burned And they've buried the ashes for good They've torn up the loop, and there's only a scar To show where the water-crane stood But the birch and the elder still follow the track Standing black in the smoke and the rain And the poor little sheep with the smouldering back Runs away at the sound of a train
O Britannias and Jubillees, Compounds and Crabs Have been taken away from the shed And along with the clipper, the coach and the cab They speak of an age that is dead For some are away to be mounted and stuffed While others are butchered and sold And the steamraiser's gone for the very last time And his brazier's broken and cold
Well I've given me kettle and me old tin can To a lad for a souvenir And I'd trade in me shovel for twenty fags Or the price of a bottle of beer For the Scotsman has come to the end of his run And Mallard is cold as the stone The story is over, the giants are dead And the jackals are picking the bones