Lyrics

[Verse 1] It was 1962, I was two years out of school When I got on board a boat that was bound for Liverpool The day I went away, I remember it so well Said goodbye to the North Wall, bid a fond farewell [Verse 2] When I got down to the smoke, it was 1963 I got a job doing meals on wheels 'round NW3 I was terrorising grannies for ten lousy bob a week I was smashed and blacked and drunk and yawning in NW3 [Chorus 1] In the filth and piss they lived in, they would sometimes hum an air Or talk in tongues of madness, keeping time upon a chair And for their wrists, a numbered tab In Westminster morgue on a cold hard slab When I was still a young man in NW3 [Verse 3] Now I'm spent of love and rage and I'm going home again Never did nobody wrong, never earned a decent wage So thanks for sweet fuck all, once more look at the North Wall Say goodbye to all of that and bid a fond farewell [Verse 4] At the top of the Pentonville Road, I watched the sun setting The town spread out before me, looked beautiful to me Away from all the sighing, the suffering and the dying I dreamed of the future, the young and the free [Chorus 2] But the years they went by quickly. now I swear I won't return here Where each day just bring me closer to that final misery My kids will never scrape shit 'round here I won't die crying in a pint of beer Or eat their stinking meals on wheels in NW3