Hello it’s Sunday and Jim Adams is here with Song Lyric Sunday This week’s prompt is songs relating to specific moments in history. This interesting prompt comes from the brilliant storyteller, Beatles and Music officinardo THE SCILLIAN STORYTELLER.
There are so many songs to choose from, Zombie from The Cranberries, Sunday Bloody Sunday from U2, or the great history lesson from Billy Joel We didn’t start the fire, or the one Nancy chose the wonderful Tale of the Edmund Fitzgerald. So many songs many of which I have used before and if you pop over to Jim’s page you will bsee what he has to say.
So my first thoughts went to social history and one song that truly touches is Big River by Jimmy Nails. Jimmy not only tells of his youth but he tells us a potted history of his dad… You can hear the love in his voice…not only for his River and Home Town but his Father .
In 1995 when this song was released hubby and I were doing our best to bring our three boys up and although we lived in the south we had struggled through the Thatcher years and I could feel the truth of these lyrics!
“Big River” is a song written and performed by English singer and actor Jimmy Nail, included on his fourth studio album of the same name. The song was released as a single on 16 October 1995, reaching number 18 on the UK Singles Chart and number 10 in Hungary. In 2011, it was recorded by Joe McElderry for the DVD, Big River Big Songs: The Tyne McElderry also performed it for Sunday for Sammy in 2012
The big river referred to in the title is the River Tyne that runs along the Southern edge of Nail’s home town, Newcastle upon Tyne. The song is an elegy to the days when shipbuilding and industry in general were at their height in Newcastle and laments the later decline of the industry and therefore the decline of the importance and activity of the Tyne itself. However, in the last chorus, the song takes a more hopeful turn, declaring that, “the river will rise again”.
The guitar work on the song was provided by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, who features in the music video. The song was adopted as an anthem by female workers in Liverpool during a lockout the following winter.
The decline of shipbuilding not only happened in the North East but across the country, the impact of competition from Japan, South Korea and China reduced the production of ships dramatically. In 2011 only four ships were built in the UK.
Whereas 50 years ago, shipbuilding, ship repair and marine engineering firms dominated the edge of the River Tyne, now little remains. Most of the yards were demolished as soon as they closed – although the shipbuilding heritage is still visible on the Tyne’s bridges.
Information from Wikipedia.
Big River Lyrics by Jimmy Nail
Walking on cobble stone, little bits of skin and bone
Jumping on the tram car for a ride
I can remember then, I was just a boy of ten
Hanging out along the old quayside
Not all the capstans and the cargo boats
And stevadores are gone
To where all the old ships go
But memories just like the seas live on
That was when coal was king,
The river a living thing
And I was just a boy, but it was mine,
The coaly tyne
This was a big river,
I want you all to know that I was proud
This was a big river, but that was long ago,
That’s not now, that’s not now
My fther was a working man,
He earned our living with his hands
He had to cross the river every day
He picked up a union card out of the neptune yard
Mouths to feed and the bills to pay
Then came a time for him to sail across the sea
And far away
Finally when the war was won
You brought him home and home he stayed
And when his days were done, under a golden sun
You carried him to where he longed to be,
Back to the sea
This was a big river,
I want you all to know that I was proud
This was a big river, but that was long ago,
That’s not now
The neptune was the last to go,
I heard it on my radio
And then they played the latest number one
But what do they do all day?
And what are they supposed to say?
What does a father tell his son?
If you you believed that there’s a bond between our future
And our past
Then try to hold on to what we had,
We build them strong, we built to last
’cause this is a mighty town,
It’s built upon solid ground
And everything they tried so hard to kill,
We will rebuild
This was a big river
I want you all to know that I was proud
This was a big river, but that was long ago,
That’s not now
This is a big river,
And in my heart I know it will rise again
The river will rise again
******
Eleven years previous my father had died and the words gained even more meaning for me when I heard them. . My dad too was a card carrying union man, an Irish immigrant, who worked as a body maker and was a shop steward and T.U.C. congress man all his working life. He ended up working for London Transport upholstering the seats for the tubes and buses. He was a trades union representative and T. U.C. (Trade Union Congress) delegate for the N.U.V.B. (NATIONAL UNION OF VEHICLE BUILDERS). He worked all his life day 5 days a week to raise our large family and he worked tirelessly 6 evenings a week to help people in his union. We were used to a steady stream of people who came to the house for help. I think my Dad was a hero and a Union man until the day he died.
Below is a second song about the UKs social history, earlier than Jimmy Nail’s song. My Dad lived through it all and a lot worse before that era too. Including poverty and civil war in Ireland and the General strike in England in 1926…
Now I’m a union man
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think, that the company stinks
Yes I’m a union man
When we meet in the local hall
I’ll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout, it’s “Out brothers, out!”
And the rise of the factory’s fall
Oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die
As a union man I’m wise
To the lies of the company spies
And I don’t get fooled by the factory rules
‘Cause I always read between the lines
And I always get my way
If I strike for higher pay
When I show my card to the Scotland Yard
And this is what I say
Oh, oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die
Before the union did appear
My life was half as clear
Now I’ve got the power to the working hour
And every other day of the year
So though I’m a working man
I can ruin the government’s plan
And though I’m not hard, the sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman
Oh, oh, oh, you don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die
Source: LyricFind
“Part of the Union” is a song by English band Strawbs, featured on their 1973 album Bursting at the Seams and was the band’s most successful single, peaking at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. It also reached No. 10 in the Irish Singles Chart.
The song was included on the album Bursting at the Seams but is not considered typical of the songs on that album. It was originally recorded without a contribution by band leader Dave Cousins and was to be released under the name of “The Brothers”. It demonstrates the different, more commercial direction the writing partnership of Richard Hudson and John Ford was taking within the band.
The song (especially its chorus “You don’t get me I’m part of the Union”) quickly became popular as an unofficial anthem of the trade union movement. Subsequently, the Strawbs have confirmed that the song was written with genuine celebratory intent, in support of the unions.
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