The Hidden Glasgow Forums

Come on folks get your act together Hue and Cry singing live "Mother Glasgow" Makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Far better than that song about a drunk.


Mother Glasgow
In the second city of the Empire
Mother Glasgow watches all her weans
Trying hard to feed her little starlings
Unconsciously she clips their little wings

Mother Glasgow's succour is perpetual
Nestling the Billy and the Tim
I dreamt I took a dander with St. Mungo
To try to catch a fish that couldnay swim

Verse 2 as above

Among the flightless birds and sightless starlings
Father Glasgow knows his starlings well
He wont make his own way up to heaven
By waltzing all his charges in to hell

Mother Glasgow's succour is perpetual
Nestling the Billy and the Tim
I dreamt I took a dander with St. Mungo
To try to catch a fish that couldnay swim

And the tree
And the fish
And the bird
And the bell…

Let Glasgow Flourish!

© Copyright 2005, Graham Stewart, all rights reserved.

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what that musical..oh ay Calamity Jane, is there not a song about Glasgow in that, you know how it goes..

'take me back to Blackhill..Blackhill and Duntocher!!'

Deacon Blue songs are full of them,

For example, Fellow Hoodlums,
(lyrics from a fan site)

On the night that
Maxton died
I fell over
The Clyde was full of old tyres
The wind nearly pulled my
Breeches off
And Ann Kelly
She kissed my mouth
Fellow hoodlums and
Engineers
The Union`s south
And we`re all here
I`m going up Buchanan Street
With a box of fireworks
And two bottles of
Tizer
On the last train from St. Enochs
I saw the graveyard
It looked like our old street
People were cheering
All the way from Hampden
With macaroons and
And scarves and rattles
Fellow hoodlums and
Engineers
The Union`s south
And we`re all here
I`m going up Buchanan Street
With a box of fireworks
And two bottles of
Tizer
Billy`s a butcher now
Always has been
And he picks his teeth
With old rusty meat hooks
And he sends his beef with the bike boys
Monday to Saturday
Partick to Cowcaddens
Fellow hoodlums and
Engineers
The Union`s south
And we`re all here
I`m going up Buchanan Street
With a box of fireworks
And two bottles of
Tizer
I`m going up Buchanan Street
With a box of fireworks
And two bottles of
Tizer

David Byrne - The Great Western Road


A man sticks his fingers inside of his mouth
The words are stuck in there
He fishes them out
Whispers and mumbles, statements and verse, curses and love songs
For nobody else

Man takes a pencil and puts down his thoughts
The old human highway from Eden to Nod
Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, strangers and cripples
In love with their lives

How they dance
In a trance
Where the river bends
Here we go,
Don't you know
That it never ends
Some who ride
Some who slide
Everyone you know
Travels on
That great western road

How they laugh
Raise a glass
Take a bottle down
Any face any place
In this northern town
Dragging on
???????????????
Travel on
That great western road

Man goes to show world
And dreams of the stars
He leans to the left
He leans to the north
He learns to be humble
He learns from the trees
And all of God's creatures
To him they would speak
Saying wake up my little lambs
Wake up it's time to begin
Wake up it's all that you are
Wake up and it's not very far

Beggar-man soldier-man beggar-man and thief
Some are young
Some are old
And some on their knees
Broken legs broken nose
Swaying to and fro
As they walk
The great western road

Every snake
Every bird
Every creeping thing
Like a knife
In the night
I see her again
Blessed heart
Blessed word
Blessed skin and bones
All along
That great western road

Helen Wheels - Paul McCartney and Wings.

Glasgow Town never brought him down when he was heading out on the road.

One odd mention for Glasgow comes from Donald Fagen of 70's jazz rockers Steely Dan.

On the title track of his solo album 'Kamakiriad' he sings

"I was born yesterday
When they brought my Kamakiri
It's a steam power 10
The frame is out of Glasgow
The tech is Balinese"

A couple of songs by the Silencers -

The Real McCoy:

"Glasgow's a go-go - hey now, all the graffiti's gone"

One Inch of Heaven:

"As I walk down Jamaica Street, with rain in my eyes"



Black is the Colour (Hamish Imlach, Christy Moore and, more recently, Paul Weller):

"I go to the Clyde to mourn and weep"

I have just spent a few minutes (which I thoroughly enjoyed) reading the very funny song lyrics suggested by all you people and it does my old heart good to see that we Glaswegians still have a brilliant sense of humour.
Frank Dawson

I'm a skyscraper wein and i live on the 19th floor
but i'm no going oot tae play anymore
Cos since a' moved tae castlemilk am wasting away
Cos am gettin'one meal less everyday

On the first day my maw threw oot a dod o' hovis broon
it went skitin oot the windae an went up instead o' doon
Now every 27 hoors ma piece comes intae site
my piece went intae orbit and became a satellite

on the second day ma maw thought she would try it once again
instead it hit a pilot in a fast low flying plane
scraping oaf his goggles shouting through his intercom
the clyde side raid have caught me wi a breed an jeely bomb

on the third day ma maw thought she would have another go
the salvation army were stan'in doon below
Onward Christian soldiers was the piece they shoulda played
Instead the oompa man played a piece an marmalade

One i was taught by my grandad when i was a child.

Doc Lightning wrote:Not forgetting: "Three Men Fae Carntyne"

And Short-haired police cadet from Maryhill.

MacKenzie79 wrote:I'm a skyscraper wein and i live on the 19th floor
but i'm no going oot tae play anymore
Cos since a' moved tae castlemilk am wasting away
Cos am gettin'one meal less everyday

On the first day my maw threw oot a dod o' hovis broon
it went skitin oot the windae an went up instead o' doon
Now every 27 hoors ma piece comes intae site
my piece went intae orbit and became a satellite

on the second day ma maw thought she would try it once again
instead it hit a pilot in a fast low flying plane
scraping oaf his goggles shouting through his intercom
the clyde side raid have caught me wi a breed an jeely bomb

on the third day ma maw thought she would have another go
the salvation army were stan'in doon below
Onward Christian soldiers was the piece they shoulda played
Instead the oompa man played a piece an marmalade

One i was taught by my grandad when i was a child.

Written by the self same Adam McNaughton as did the song in my previous post.

I'll have to check out more of his stuff because i love that song and when i taught it to my kid they loved it too.

Its fairly realistic, kids in Glasgow can imagine a high rise! I could never imagine things out of the nursery rhymes I was taught...

Vladimir wrote:I could never imagine things out of the nursery rhymes I was taught...

Not Glasgow things, agreed, but many other wondrous & varied things, shirley?

MacKenzie79 wrote:I'll have to check out more of his stuff because i love that song and when i taught it to my kid they loved it too.

Up until a couple of years ago you could have walked into Adam Books in Parnie Street and asked the great man himself. He shut up shop though.