The lyrics are pretty literal, and follow a common NMA theme of a letter to an old friend, or maybe a brother in this one. I'm not sure where Belfast would come into it. One guy stays in the small town where they grew up, the other follows the bright lights to the city.
There's some descriptions of small town life, people out drinking, getting into fights, excessive violence. The stuff about the posters refers to the awful 'holiday' style posters you used to get in accident and emergency waiting rooms. A misguided attempt at trying to make the place look a bit more cheerful I suppose. Nowadays it's all adverts for ambulance chasers.
The one who left was a 'big man' locally and painted himself as a brave adventurer when he left, off to seek his fortune elsewhere. The one who stayed is angry or maybe just sad, not because they left, but because they cut off ties with everyone they left behind.
He asks the question, which of them is brave and which is the coward? The one who abandoned his roots and his family to find the life he wanted for himself, or the one who felt the pull of that life, but stayed behind because of his ties and responsibilities to his hometown. He knew what he was giving up, and the life he was accepting by staying, but he stayed anyway.
The lyrics are pretty literal, and follow a common NMA theme of a letter to an old friend, or maybe a brother in this one. I'm not sure where Belfast would come into it. One guy stays in the small town where they grew up, the other follows the bright lights to the city.
There's some descriptions of small town life, people out drinking, getting into fights, excessive violence. The stuff about the posters refers to the awful 'holiday' style posters you used to get in accident and emergency waiting rooms. A misguided attempt at trying to make the place look a bit more cheerful I suppose. Nowadays it's all adverts for ambulance chasers.
The one who left was a 'big man' locally and painted himself as a brave adventurer when he left, off to seek his fortune elsewhere. The one who stayed is angry or maybe just sad, not because they left, but because they cut off ties with everyone they left behind.
He asks the question, which of them is brave and which is the coward? The one who abandoned his roots and his family to find the life he wanted for himself, or the one who felt the pull of that life, but stayed behind because of his ties and responsibilities to his hometown. He knew what he was giving up, and the life he was accepting by staying, but he stayed anyway.