Something About England

[Verse] They say the immigrants steal the hubcaps Of respected gentlemen They say it would be wine and roses If England were for Englishmen again Well I saw a dirty overcoat At the foot of the pillar of the road Propped inside was an old man Whom time could not erode The night was snapped by sirens Those blue lights circled past The dance hall called for an ambulance The bars all closed up fast My silence gazing at the ceiling While roaming the single room I thought the old man could help me If he could explain the gloom "You really think it's all new You really think about it too" The old man scoffed as he spoke to me: "I'll tell you a thing or two-- I missed the fourteen-eighteen war But not the sorrow afterwards With my father dead, my mother ran off My brothers took the pay of hoods The twenties turned the north was dead The hunger strike came marching south At the garden party not a word was said The ladies lifted cake to their mouths The next war began and my ship sailed With battle orders writ in red In five long years of bullets and shells We left ten million dead The few returned to old Piccadilly We limped around Leicester Square The world was busy rebuilding itself The architects could not care But how could we know when I was young All the changes that were to come? All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield And now the terror of the scientific sun There were masters and servants and servants and dogs They taught you how to touch your cap But through strikes and famine and war and peace England never closed this gap So leave me now the moon is up But remember all the tales I tell The memories that you have dredged up Are on letters forwarded from hell" The streets were by now deserted The gangs had trudged off home The lights clicked off in the bedsits An old England was all alone