On Silvertown Way, the cranes stand high
Quiet and gray against the still of the sky
They won't quit and lay down though the action has died
They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side

From the poisonous drains a vision appears
New circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
Above the church and the homes were all the silver is gone

If I'd a bucket of gold, what would I do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown

A silver dawn steals over the docks
A truck with no weels up on cinderblocks
Men with no dreams around a fire in a drum
Scrap metal schemes are rusted over and done

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown

When you're standing on thin and dangerous ice
You can knock and walk in for citizens' advice
They'll tell you the where you can turn, where you can go
There's nothing they can tell me I don't already know

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown

From the Caning Town train I see a billboard high
There's a big silverplane raising up into the sky
And I can make out the words 'seven flights every day'
Says six of those birds are bound for JFK

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in Silvertown
Down in Silverdown
Going down Silvertown
Down in Silverdown


Lyrics submitted by redmax, edited by toddk

Silvertown Blues Lyrics as written by Mark Knopfler

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Silvertown Blues song meanings
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    General Comment

    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.

    fudgepandaon February 18, 2014   Link

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