1974

I broke my arm in a bomb scare
Running from a bang that wasn’t even there
This big fat woman stopped and looked around
and I bounced off her and I hit the ground
I spent that Christmas with my arm in a sling
- an angry little turkey with a broken wing
The device turned out to be a cardboard box -
I nearly wished the bloody thing had gone off.
When the Workers Council put out the lights
we sat in the shadows on a Saturday night
In the same seats around the dead TV
My mother and my father and my little brother and me -
and we cursed Sunningdale, and Stormont too -
for stealing our right to watch Doctor Who
When you’re young, you don’t know what it means
the house full of candles and Heinz Baked Beans
CHORUS:
Oh this was in 1974
with the clowns and the crooks
and the Christian Soldiers
marching as to war - marching as to war.
My mother saved pennies in a big glass jar
like a woman getting ready for a Civil War
We went down to Central and she caught the train
with two little boys she could barely contain
In Barry’s Portrush, we forgot about God -
Nobody was Catholic and no-one was Prod
There’s only one religion in amusement halls -
You walk in with dreams, and walk out with damn all
CHORUS
Fried sugar and diesel smoke
Broken glass and lukewarm Coke
A big top in a muddy field
A beautiful girl hangs by her heels
From a high wire, she watches the crowds
The city’s closed minds and open mouths
Eating candy floss on the wild frontier
She can’t wait to be gone from here
CHORUS