MY LITTLE TOWN
There’s a road runs straight through my little town
Half way down it there’s a picture house
Now they’ve turned it into a bingo hall
They don’t show films any more
And the road runs straight through my little town
The road runs straight through my little town
There’s a railway line in my little town
All the kids do is talk of getting out
Stand on the platforms on a Saturday
With the lights of the city shining far away
The pubs are empty until the Saturday night
Half past eleven you’re guaranteed a fight
What else can those poor boys do
But get blind drunk and act the fool
And the road runs straight through my little town
Through my little town
Far away
To build up to the release of the Black Tin Barns and River Ghosts cassette I writing a daily blog of each song and what I trying to do and influences etc.
Also where appropriate embedding tracks where other artists have covered the song.
The first track above is ‘My Little Town’ from 1995.
This was re-recorded with different tune by James McSweeney who now trading under the name Cole Cullen out of Oregon USA.
Here is one of his versions of the song as recorded for the Moon Over The Downs compilation of 2003.
For latest James McSweeney / Cole Cullen music visit http://www.colecullen.com
I was listening to a lot of James McMurtry ( Larry McMurtry’s son and playing at The Maze in Nottingham in February!) and John Prine as well as usual suspects like John Hiatt and Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, I like the song because it an affectionate portrait of my ‘one-horse’ home town which actually did have a picture-house ( or movie-theater depending which version you listen to) called the New Coronet which still stands but now a Bingo Hall as the song states.
Here old and new pictures of cinemas in Didcot. Plus lyrics.
My Little Town (James McSweeney rewrite version)
There’s a road that runs straight through my little town
A movie theatre about half way down in my little town
But now they’ve turned it into a bingo palace
They don’t show films there no more, no more
There’s a railway line runs through my little town
And all the kids can think about is getting out of this little town
See them on the platform on a Saturday night
About half past eleven there’ll always be a fight
What can a poor boy do
But get drunk and play the fool
In my little town, in my little town.
This my earliest version of song from a reel to reel tape in early 1990s I expect.
