Silvertown Blues Lyrics

Lyric discussion by fudgepanda 

Cover art for Silvertown Blues lyrics by Mark Knopfler

My maternal Great Grandmother lived in Silvertown in the '20s & '30s, my mum still has vivid memories of visiting her as a child just before WW2. The area had many problems including an explosion in an armaments factory in WW1 that killed many and hundreds of men had to queue up for work outside the docks during the Depression. It was also heavily bombed during WW2. Silvertown way is a long road that runs roughly east to west, north of the Thames past the Royal Victoria & Royal Albert Docks. Mark asks: If I'd a bucket of gold what would I do? Leave the story untold. If he had a lot of money he wouldn't be telling this story, he'd have just left. Later he adds: If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do? He wouldn't need a lot, he'd just go anyway. But he doesn't, so he can't. Even when he goes to the CItizens Advice Bureau they don't tell him anything new. He's heard it all before. The glamour of long distance flights just rubs it in. Flour mills, sugar refineries, docks and chemical companies used to line the Thames & provide manual work which has now all gone. But then, nothing stays the same.