CLASSIC NORTHERN DIVERSIONS
I took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain
I saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain
I'm in huddersfield drinking in the slubber's arms
and i walked through slush by broken farms
where huddling sheep are turning grey
in the cold light of a nothing day
it took me fifty long years just to work out
that because i was angry didn't mean i was right
now i'm sitting in a bar alone
with the jukebox playing a terrible song
the bartender says I see it's you again
I been drinking deep from a jar of pain
Ch -- i remember once i went home like this
i had my mother in tears as i felt her kiss
now my mother is heavenbound
and her body lies in unmarked ground
in every heart in every home
there's a dying man who lives alone
he close the door and he turn away
and the tide rushes in on a fatal shore
i can never get too close to coal
with a glass in my hand and the ember's crack
but the fire's gone out and the chimney's closed
and there's a round jeer sticking on my back
ch --
I took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain
i saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain
and with chimneys leaning to the sea
i got the salt of sunderland creasing me
i took a jar of pain to the soaking field
and to the lonely seawall inn south shields
if i was a man which i am not
standing in the last of the rotten snow
i'd fall on my knees and cry out loud
to the snowy river and the icy flow
i took a train out of leeds in the smear and stain
i saw the city pass by in the shuffling rain
--Jackie Leven
from his CD Shining Brother Shining Sister
