I met my love by the gas works wall

Dreamed a dream by the old canal

Kissed a girl by the factory wall

Dirty old town

Dirty old town



Clouds a drifting across the moon

Cats a prowling on their beat

Spring's a girl in the street at night

Dirty old town

Dirty old town



Heard a siren from the docks

Saw a train set the night on fire

Smelled the spring on the smokey wind

Dirty old town

Dirty old town



I'm going to make a good sharp axe

Shining steel tempered in the fire

Will chop you down like an old dead tree

Dirty old town

Dirty old town







(Ewan McColl)



SONG: Jesse James



Jesse James we understand

Has killed many a man

He robbed the Union trains

He stole from the rich and gave to the poor

He'd a hand and a heart and a brain



Well it was on a Saturday night

The stars were shining bright

They robbed the Glendale train

And the people they did say for many miles away

It was those outlaws Frank and Jesse James



Now Jesse had a wife

Lived a lady all her life

Her children they were brave

But history does record

That Bob and Charlie Ford

Have laid poor Jesse in his grave



Well it was Bob and Charlie Ford

Those dirty little cowards

I wonder how they feel

For they ate of Jesse's bread and they slept in Jesse's bed

And they laid poor Jesse in his grave



Now Jesse had a wife

Lived a lady all her life

Her children they were brave

But history does record

That Bob and Charlie Ford

Have laid poor Jesse in his grave



Well the people held their breath

When they heard of Jesse's death

They wondered how he came to fall

Well it was Robert Ford in fact who shot him in the back

While he hung a picture on the wall



Now Jesse had a wife

Lived a lady all her life

Her children they were brave

But history does record

That Bob and Charlie Ford

Have laid poor Jesse in his grave



(Trad. Arr. The Pogues