Streets Of London written by Ralph McTell and sung by Mary Hopkin

Streets Of London written by Ralph McTell and sung by Mary Hopkin


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Streets Of London
sung by Mary Hopkin

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 loosly at his side
Yesterdays paper telling yesterdays news

So how can you tell me your 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 on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags

So how can you tell me your 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

In the all-night cafe
At quarter past eleven
Same old man
Sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his tea-cup
Each tea lasts an hour
Then he wanders home alone

So how can you tell me your 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

And have you seen the old man
Outside the seaman's mission?
Memory fading with this medal ribbons he wears
In our winter city
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotton hero
And a world that doesn't care

So how can you tell me your lonely
And say for you that the sun dont 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

I lived and worked in London, a number of times in the 1960s and 1970s. The specific imaging McTell uses was straight from those times. For all the glamor of the Beetles, Twiggy, of an old England in transition to a modern nation, there was also the residue of a near defeated nation still recovering from the devastation of World War II. This song seems a tribute to those times and peoples. I remember them.