Lyr Req: Salford Town

Subject: salford town
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 07:27 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 08:03 PM

Anything else you can tell us about the song? It doesn't seem to be in our database or in old Forum posts. Is it a traditional song, or what? Know any phrases from the song? If you can tell us everything you know about the song, there's a good chance we can come up with it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Zebedee
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 08:15 PM

I work in Salford Town, and wonder if you want the words to Dirty Old Town which is the only well known song about Salford.

Ed

- Joe, how do you manage to be so nice all the time?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 10:18 PM

I don't think that it's "Dirty Old Town", which never mentions Salford by name.  The Dubliners appear to have recorded a "Salford Town" (as well), described as traditional (though as we know, that's far from a guarantee that it is), and that's all I could discover.  The only site I found that claimed to have the lyrics was a mass of broken links.  One for the Dubliners fans, perhaps...

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Anglo
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 11:27 PM

Well I've certainly heard "smelt the spring on the Salford wind" sung, though I'm not sure if the man himself ever recorded it that way. Probably not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: AndyG
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 04:32 AM

Salford, as in Salford, Lancashire, is a City.

HTH
AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 11:57 AM

The wind usually comes from the west or southwest. It used to smell of Carrington oil refinery when I lived there (30 years ago), when it didn't smell of sewage works. I expect it's like most cities now, and smells of traffic and disused takeaways.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Bernard
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 12:12 PM

The line was 'Smelt the smoke on a Salford wind' in its early original form, before the Spinners (I think) recorded the 'commercial' version.

Subject: Lyr Add: SALFORD TOWN ^^
From: Zebedee
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 01:37 PM

Thanks to Malcolm's hint, I've managed to find the lyrics at this site

Ed

SALFORD TOWN
(Traditional)

I've never been out of Salford Town the place where I was born
Except when I was in the ranks and wore a uniform
But I'd sooner never travel if the only way to see the world
Is trough the battle sites of a mark for three o three

I've got a little baby he's the apple of my eye
When I think about his future my thoughts take wing and fly
What kind of future can there be
With plains and tanks and guns
And flying high and dropping bombs on other people's sons

I'd like to see the whole wide world
The north, south, east and west
I'd like to travel everywhere with the girl that I love best
That I'll stay beside the jewel all my life before I'll stand
In some other country with a bayonet in my hand

I work each day upon the docks and I watch the ships come in
And no one asks to see the colour of a sailor's skin
Side by side they're working men from Norway, China and Greece
Why can't the state's man do the same and let us live in peace
Will let us live in peace ^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Bert
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 01:41 PM

Matchstalk Men also mentions that illustrious town.

He painted Salford's smoky tops
on cardboard boxes from the shops
and parts of Ancoats, where I used to play.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Brakn
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 05:56 PM

Isn't "Barefoot Days" also about Salford? When I play in Salford and say that I'm going to do a Salford song, meaning "Dirty Old Town", people often expect "Barefoot Days".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 10:21 PM

Well done, Ed; I gave up trying to find that file and had assumed it wasn't there at all.  How did you track it down?  The language isn't particularly traditional, though; I'd guess at "anonymous", perhaps.  I'd quite forgotten about that line in "Dirty Old Town" -suppose it's all those years of hearing it murdered by people who thought it was about Dublin...

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 11:33 PM

Hi Ed. I swear I've heard a recording of the song you're calling "Salford Town", by Ewan MacColl, but possibly with a different first line. The lyrics strike me as being absolutely by MacColl in every way. The album might have been "New Briton Gazette". Ring a bell to anyone else?

Rick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: GUEST,Ian M.
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 03:54 AM

The song Salford Town was recorded in the seventies by Paddy Reilly. It is credited as traditional.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 04:34 AM

Do you think that second-last line should be:

Why can't the statesmen do the same and let us live in peace

I harvested the lyrics for the database, but that line gives me problems.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:08 AM

G'day all,

Like Rick Fielding, I have heard Ewan McColl sing this ... and I automatically assumed it was his song. I will check to see if it is on one of the 'lecture' concerts that were broadcast here in Australia.

BTW: The song dates as Second World War, right from the start, with the line which (should) read :
" ... though the battle sights of a mark 4 (IV) three o three"
ie, from the working end of the Rifle No. IV, Mk III, 0.303" calibre, the updated version of the old "smelly", or SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) adopted by British forces just before the outbreak of WWII.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 09:30 PM

Er, G'day again,

Ooops! (Probably only important to a military buff anyway, but) that should have been Rifle No. IV, Mk I, 0.303" calibre ...

It all seems inconsequential ( ... I've never been out of Salford Town the place where I was born ...) in the light of the death of Kirsty McColl ... while enjoying a holiday with the kids overseas.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 01:16 AM

refresh. Still want to know if anyone has "The New Briton Gazette" and if the song's on it.

Rick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: GUEST,Ian M.
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 04:09 AM

Verse 3 Line 4 should read "Irwell" and not "jewel". The Irwell is the local river.

Good Luck

Ian M.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 04:31 AM

Could well be a McColl song. I have heard tell that in the days when Ewan was plain Jimmy Miller he was either in the army and was kicked out for his left wing views or he conciencesly (sp?) objected - not sure if either is true but the WW2 timing is right and the songs sentiments certainly fit the bill.

Most interested to find out.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: salford town
From: GUEST,Ian M.
Date: 21 Dec 00 - 05:02 AM

Sorry, I should also have pointed out that verse 3 line 4 starts "But" and not "That". I think its odds on that Ewan McColl wrote it.

Good Luck.

Ian M.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salford Town
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 15 - 12:49 AM

Trafford Road Ballad
The Trafford Road Ballad
Ewan MacColl - Trafford Road Ballad