Hull Or Hell

Track 4 The Boy Bands Have Won New Album From Chumbawamba. Of larks trains windows and brooks The poet he writes it all down in his book Won't meet your eye but he wants you to look In Hull or hell he lies Lambs in the winter and swans in the spring Children at play they're like birds on the wing And the poet he writes that the sun seems to swing In Hull or hell he lies Away from the world and away from the page Hidden in corners the gathering of age Retreats to the wings where he once held the stage In Hull or hell he lies The dirt and the filth that we don't get to see That's eating his language away This yellow-eyed nastiness hides from the light of the day Resenting the everyday growing so old Where winter once pictured as flowers in fold Turned frosty and bitter and weathered and cold In Hull or hell he lies His housemaid she tried but the dirt grew so fast The darkest of colours he nailed to the mast Stuck in his ways like he's stuck in the past A thumbnail sketch of the demise of Philip Larkin, a wonderful poet but revealed after his death to have been a racist bigot. The man who wrote of the new-born lamb's awakening to 'earth's immeasurable surprise' admitted to periodically heaving up "gouts of bile", or "spots of commonness," as he snobbishly called his hateful outbursts. In our quest to search out a fishermen's choir for the chorus we chanced upon a parcel of rogues dressed all in black and in fine voice and humour. The Oysterband! Squeezed into the vocal booth at Shabby Road, belting it out as if from the prow of a Hull-bound boat. Left to their own devices, they'd be in there still, adding line upon line. Only a cry of "Pubs are open, lads!" tempted them back into the daylight.

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YouTube | July 16, 2008

Tags:. .earths. .spots. .folk. .spring. .page