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Hello My Old Friend Lyrics
Early morning day is dawning
Cooling towers and factory gates
Dirty streets and laughing people
Skinny dogs and beer crates
Hello my old friend
Hello my old friend
Sad canals green black water
Somewhere bicycles and beds
Wet and windy afternoons
And pigeons coo in garden sheds
Hello my old friend
Hello my old friend
High-rise tower blocks with panoramic
Views of trains and coal
Tiehead railway tracks tread faithfully
The gas works to behold
Hello my old friend
Hello my old friend
Just to see the sunset
Pretty rainbows over your majestic towers
To feel your earth beneath my feet
Here I could stand for hours and hours
(Young girls sing Fara Jacka in the background)
Big machines that once were champions
Turn to dust under the sky
Broken windows choking chimneys
Factory walls for miles and miles
Bye bye my old friend
Bye bye my old friend
Just to see the sunset
Pretty rainbows over your majestic towers
To feel your earth beneath my feet
Here I could stand for hours and hours
Cooling towers and factory gates
Dirty streets and laughing people
Skinny dogs and beer crates
Hello my old friend
Somewhere bicycles and beds
Wet and windy afternoons
And pigeons coo in garden sheds
Hello my old friend
High-rise tower blocks with panoramic
Views of trains and coal
Tiehead railway tracks tread faithfully
The gas works to behold
Hello my old friend
Pretty rainbows over your majestic towers
To feel your earth beneath my feet
Here I could stand for hours and hours
Big machines that once were champions
Turn to dust under the sky
Broken windows choking chimneys
Factory walls for miles and miles
Bye bye my old friend
Pretty rainbows over your majestic towers
To feel your earth beneath my feet
Here I could stand for hours and hours
Song Info
Submitted by
songmeanings On Feb 06, 2012
More Electric Light Orchestra
Mr. Blue Sky
Telephone Line
Don't Bring Me Down
Livin' Thing
Can't Get It Out Of My Head
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This song is most likely about London. Jeff is singing about all the good and bad and glorious of the city. Just as Chicago sang about their "city by the bay". My personal feelings for the song go beyond the description. I once used it as music for a montage of Charlie Chaplin clips, and it worked beautifully. The pacing of the music lends itself to slapstick early on, then transforms into a more serious mood for the description of life and its perils. One of my favorites definitely!!!!
The album Secret Messages was originally supposed to be a double LP, and this is one of the tracks that was removed from it when it was cut down to a single LP. The album was supposed to be the last ELO album, though. And this song, which was written by Jeff Lynne about leaving his hometown of Birmingham, was supposed to be the album's closer. It would've been a great finale to the band's career.