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