London on my mind...

This week a friend Natalie Gelman got to London to start her European tour and posted these pics:

Then Kelley McRae who will play our House Concert series in September posted her walking in a tunnel in London under the river Thames.

London on my mind I picked up the guitar and googled the words to Leaving London by Tom Paxton... it's actually funny to read because he had to go American Express to try to get a letter from home, no text or internet for Tom.

Then I moved to another song I know from Ralph McTell that I learned from playing of Fred Holstein I did have to google the words again, but the music was like riding a bike.

Have you seen the old man 

In the closed-down market 

Kicking up the paper, 

with his worn out shoes? 

In his eyes you see no pride 

Hand held loosely at his side

Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news 

So how can you tell me you're lonely, 

And say for you that the sun don't shine? 

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London 

I'll show you something to make you change your mind 

Have you seen the old girl 

Who walks the streets of London 

Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags? 

She's no time for talking, 

She just keeps right on walking 

Carrying her home in two carrier bags. 

Chorus

In the all night cafe

At a quarter past eleven, 

Same old man is sitting there on his own 

Looking at the world 

Over the rim of his tea-cup, 

Each tea last an hour 

Then he wanders home alone 

Chorus

And have you seen the old man 

Outside the seaman's mission 

Memory fading with 

The medal ribbons that he wears. 

In our winter city, 

The rain cries a little pity 

For one more forgotten hero 

And a world that doesn't care 

Chorus