Here is a relatively new song I have yet to record or even perform in public: “Mary Didn’t Want To Come To London”.
In all honesty I am a bit ambivalent about it as it deals with some pretty serious and grisly issues. It is, at least on the surface, about an imaginary terrorist attack in London. But it’s also about the risks of ambition, the cost of loyalty and guilt of the survivor. Not exactly pop chart stuff!
So below you will find a link to an mp3 demo of the song and a set of lyrics. I don’t know if it’s the kind of song enough people would want to hear for me to persevere with it. Any comments accepted gratefully.
MARY DIDN’T WANT TO COME TO LONDON – Tony Burt – All Rights Reserved
It’s great to catch the train to town together
A chance to talk and catch up on our lives
Get off the train and leave by different exits
Meet up back home when evening time arrives
I heard a muffled boom, then deadly silence
Then came the screams, the cries for help and all
I couldn’t tell you just how long I lay there
I must have cracked my head against the wall
Chorus:
Mary didn’t want to come to London
She liked it where we were with hills and streams
She loved me so she put her doubts behind her
She came along to help my find my dreams
Mary will have gone to the apartment
Listening for my key turn in the lock
She’ll know about the trouble at the station
We parted just before I felt the shock
Chorus:
They patched me up and sent me on my journey
I tried to call but phone reception’s bad
I know she’s safe at home sat waiting for me
The most important dream I’ve ever had
Chorus:
The following probably explains why recent atrocities led me to write it:
In 1974 I started going to an evening class in Birmingham every Thursday. It ran from 6.30 to 8.00 pm and my friends and I went from the college straight to the Tavern In The Town in Birmingham’s New Street. We’d stay for an hour or so and then usually go for a curry.
On 21st November 1974 we arrived at the college at 6.30 pm to find that the lecturer was ill and that our class was cancelled. So instead of getting to the Tavern at 8.10 pm we were there before 7.00. I left the Tavern at about 8.10 which is when I would normally be arriving. I left the pub and turned left to New St. station just as the IRA bomb planted in there went off.
Wikipedia: Birmingham Pub Bombings
