We gather for the picture my five mates and me
Like dapper little devils, we are young and free
And I sit in the centre - the captain of the crew
My coat is an old’un but my shirt is almost new
And I sing ta-ra to Tooting and the lads I leave behind
For the train waits in the station and it’s time for me to ride
But I’ll take this tiny picture so wherever I may be
There’ll be Jim and Jack and Ernie, Norman, Les and me.
And as we left the city and the grey land turned to green
I thought about those young lads and the things we’d done and seen
When we fought for the right to ramble the countryside all through
When the fences were all old’uns but the land was almost new
Like dapper little devils, we are young and free
And I sit in the centre - the captain of the crew
My coat is an old’un but my shirt is almost new
And I sing ta-ra to Tooting and the lads I leave behind
For the train waits in the station and it’s time for me to ride
But I’ll take this tiny picture so wherever I may be
There’ll be Jim and Jack and Ernie, Norman, Les and me.
And as we left the city and the grey land turned to green
I thought about those young lads and the things we’d done and seen
When we fought for the right to ramble the countryside all through
When the fences were all old’uns but the land was almost new
Contributed by Dq82 - 2019/5/19 - 19:12
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The ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Lyrics taken from mudcat.org
Any Bread? - Carrying the Coffin - Hostel Strike - Cable Street - Robson’s Song - Ta-Ra to Tooting - Noddy - The Great Tomorrow - Ay Carmela - Paella - No Hay Pan - Trench Tales - Lewis Clive - David Guest - Over the Ebro - The Valley of Jarama
I got the idea for this song whilst on a ferry to Prince Edward Island in Canada in July 2017. I scribbled some verses down but only went back to them in November 2017 when we were back in Canada staying at a friend’s house in Calgary. There’s a little bit of Billy Connolly’s I Wish I Was in Glasgow somewhere in the tune.
Johnny’s five mates were Jim Perry, Jack Brown, Les Hawesby Norman Horwood, and Ernest Harrison. The picture was taken on the day that Johnny left for Spain in September 1937. He didn’t have time to get it developed of course so he wouldn’t have carried it with him across the Channel as the song suggests but it was sent out to him in Spain and he did cherish it.