Dirty Old Town Lyrics

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring's a girl in the street at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
Smelled the spring on the smokey wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

I'm going to make a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
Will chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town



(Ewan McColl)

SONG: Jesse James

Jesse James we understand
Has killed many a man
He robbed the Union trains
He stole from the rich and gave to the poor
He'd a hand and a heart and a brain

Well it was on a Saturday night
The stars were shining bright
They robbed the Glendale train
And the people they did say for many miles away
It was those outlaws Frank and Jesse James

Now Jesse had a wife
Lived a lady all her life
Her children they were brave
But history does record
That Bob and Charlie Ford
Have laid poor Jesse in his grave

Well it was Bob and Charlie Ford
Those dirty little cowards
I wonder how they feel
For they ate of Jesse's bread and they slept in Jesse's bed
And they laid poor Jesse in his grave

Now Jesse had a wife
Lived a lady all her life
Her children they were brave
But history does record
That Bob and Charlie Ford
Have laid poor Jesse in his grave

Well the people held their breath
When they heard of Jesse's death
They wondered how he came to fall
Well it was Robert Ford in fact who shot him in the back
While he hung a picture on the wall

Now Jesse had a wife
Lived a lady all her life
Her children they were brave
But history does record
That Bob and Charlie Ford
Have laid poor Jesse in his grave

(Trad. Arr. The Pogues)