Ralph McTell - Streets of London. Analyse

Ralph McTell is a singer, songwriter and an acoustic guitar player from Britian, he has had big influence on the British people since the 1960s with his folk music, and Streets of London is one of his most succesfull songs. It came as number 2 in the singles chart in the UK, it has been covred be over two hundred artists all over the world, some of them are Blackmore's Night, Joan Baez, and The Sex Pistols and in a periode it sold more than 90.000 copies a day, this gave him serval awards.

The songs message is that we should remember how lucky most of us actually are, we got food, shelter, family, friends and other basic needs covred, while there are so many people around the world that are missing one or serval of the things they are in desperate need for.
Instead for turning away and look at them as scum of the society we live in, we might rather try to care a bit more.

Ralph got inspired to write the song when he and his band was out busking and hitchhiking around Europe before they got discovered, actually it was in Paris the individual stories are taken from, but he choose to use London because he thought the name was most suitable.

Link

Streets of London på youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VmKMQI9mbZ8

Ralph McTell - Streets of London

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
And held loosely at his side
Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news.

So how can you tell me you're 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 right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.

So how can you tell me you're 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 a quarter past eleven
Same old man is sitting there on his own
Looking at the world
Over the rim of his tea-cup
Each tea last an hour
Then he wanders home alone.

So how can you tell me you're 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
The medal ribbons that he wears
In our winter city
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn't care.

So how can you tell me you're 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...