Get all 46 Joe Solo releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Farewell Hatfield Main, Sledgehammer Songs, Twenty From Twenty, Answer Machine/See You When I Get There, These Are My People, Fight The Good Fight Club Revisited, Upstairs At Park Street, Collected, and 38 more.
1. |
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Rayner's was rammed to the rafters
Full of fisher boys in from the sea
Midst the pints and the fights and the laughter
There was Marco, and Micky and me
Got Settling Day pay in my pocket
And new cowboy boots on my feet
At the pawn shop I bought back your locket
So meet me on Road, top of Manchester Street
Chorus:
Three Day Millionaires on a Friday
And skint by a Sunday night
I sail on the tide Monday morning
Just don't say goodbye at first light
There's many a mate of mine gone now
Lost in that bitter black hell
But in the way you get used to hard living
You get used to hard dying as well
Lost Tony and Dave on the Finbarr
And when the Ross Cleveland went down
It made three in a week
That we lost to the deep
There weren't a dry eye in this town
(Chorus)
So don't you wave at the window
And I won't take a penny to sea
We'll scramble our coins on the corner
Marco, and Micky and me
I'll be back with my pay in my pocket
And I won't want to spend it alone
It's three weeks for me
At the whim of the sea
But your faith will carry me home
(Chorus)
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2. |
A Rainy Day In Rayners
03:39
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Was a rainy day in Rayners
My seventh day ashore
I'd only stopped in for a couple
That turned into three or four
With that storm cloud hanging over
I wasn't keeping score
Was a rainy day in Rayners
That day
Stood a couple of pints for Pigeon
Just to see him right
Was some lads in from the fairground
Looking for a fight
And they left there black and bloodied
But they left their with their lives
Was a rainy day in Rayners
That day
Every pint I emptied
There was another pulled for me
Some lads stopped a minute
And some just left me be
Wasn't every day you learned
You'd lost your only son at sea
Was a rainy day in Rayners
That day
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3. |
Drinking Our Way Home
03:19
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Harry's gonna meet us with a cab on the docks
You must be on the pull, Bill, if you're changing your socks
With you hair slicked back, Jack, you'd pass for Capone
From Vauxhall down to Dairycoates we're drinking our way home
Three weeks in a trawler tossed about at sea
By forty foot white horses and the company
We've icicles in places, son, a nun don't own
From Vauxhall down to Dairycoates we're drinking our way home
Chorus:
From Frankie's to the Alex and then on to the Cri
When Rayners can't contain us we'll drink Halfway dry
We're dog tired, quagmired, soaked to the bone
From Vauxhall down to Dairycoates we're drinking our way home
Rayners has two doorways and a warning shout
There's the one the wives storm in, the one the lads slip out
The Arctic air has nowt on her she's cold as stone
From Vauxhall down to Dairycoates we're drinking our way home
Chorus
It doesn't take that much to kick it off in the pubs
We drove the lads from off the Andalusite out of the snug
We're sister ships at sea but here they leave us alone
From Vauxhall down to Dairycoates we're drinking our way home
We're drinking our way home
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4. |
Headscarves & Hurricanes
03:58
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With a cuppa and a custard cream
And a biro in her hand
In a little room on Coltman Street
She drew up her demands
Full crews on every trawler
And a radio man too
No more sailing off with kids
Or Christmas Cracker Crews
Was Lillian Bilocca
And Chrissie Smallbone too
With Yvonne Blenkinsop
And Mary Denness who
Had no airs and graces
Being just four West Hull girls
But set off to change the way things work
And went and changed the world
Chorus:
Like a headscarf on a hurricane
They took them on alone
If there is no revolution
Then you start one of your own
Big Lil and her petition
It started in the Cri
And ended up in parliament
Where changes go to die
But she told Mr Wilson:
"Love, this is down to you.
We've come all this way to change the law
And I'll stand here til you do."
Chorus
50 years have gone now
And the fishing's all gone too
But when I see Big Lil up there
Her lesson still rings true
How they may try to crush you
And smother out your dreams
But revolutions still start over
Tea and custard creams
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5. |
The Steam Out
02:57
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We're on a Steam Out
Fisher lads are on a Steam Out
Marco's halfway through a Party 10
On the rum again
Oh yeah
We're on a Steam Out
Come on boys we're on a Steam Out
The way we're playing dominoes it ought
To be a contact sport
Oh yeah
We're on a Steam Out
Fisher Boys are on a Steam Out
The crackle coming in from Caroline
Is in 2/2 time
Oh yeah
We're on a Steam Out
Fisher Boys are on a Steam Out
A Deckie Learner rolls a fag and fails
In a Force 8 gale
Oh yeah
We're on a Steam Out
Fisher Boys are on a Steam Out
It's like a scrumdown at the Boulevard
With Mickey's pack of cards
Oh yeah
We're on a Steam Out
Fisher Boys are on a Steam Out
Cook has got a pot of bacon broth
Then we'll sleep it off
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
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6. |
Sailing Day
03:55
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Take it from me, love
Don't wash his clothes now
If you wash his clothes now
You wash him away
Take it from me, love
And don't wash his clothes now
Don't wash his clothes
Not on Sailing Day
Take it from me, love
Don't empty that ashtray
You empty that ashtray
You throw him away
Take it from me, love
Don't empty that ashtray
Don't empty that ashtray
On Sailing Day
Chorus:
Don't ever whistle
And never wear green
Go one more or one less
But never thirteen
Throw one slipper after him
-Don't ask me why-
And say 'See you later', love
Never 'Goodbye'.
Take it from me, love
Don't wave at the window
You do that a wave will come
Wash him away
Take it from me, love
Don't wave at the window
Don't wave at the window
On Sailing Day
Chorus
Don't mention rabbits
Spell out P.1.Gs
Step on em quick
If you drop your doorkeys
No more than two sheets
One the line at a time
And keep the cat safe from
Him at Number Nine!
Chorus
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7. |
Lucky Ones
02:39
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I have good days
And I have bad days
Pass the ashtray
The whisky and the glasses
I have good days
And I have bad days
Close the door, son
Keep it from the lasses
I drink a little more than I should
I sit in here a lot alone
I have good days
And I have bad days
But I'm one of the lucky ones
I have good days
And I have bad days
This time of year their
Ghosts all come and find me
I have good days
And I have bad days
Don't you dare say
To put it all behind me
"Give our love
To the wives and to the children"
Was the last words anyone heard
I have good days
And I have bad days
But I'm one of the lucky ones
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8. |
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"I know you don't write love songs,
But I still think that's a shame.
You're in many ways a fool, son,
But that's how you play the game.
If you ever want a story,
Then the greatest one for me,
Is the 36-hour widow
And the man who came back from the sea.
His name was Harry Eddom
And he'd rose to be First Mate.
He were right there on the Cleveland
When she sank in 68.
There were 18 hands died with her
But that sad end weren't to be
For the 36-hour widow
And the man who came back from the sea.
See Harry'd made a life raft
And that raft were washed ashore
He trudged 10 miles through a blizzard
Fell down at a farmer's door.
Back home his lovely Rita
Were soon to come to be
The 36-hour widow
To the man who came back from the sea.
I know you don't write love songs
But I think back to that year
And when Harry kissed his Rita
I'm still fighting back a tear.
And I'm a tough old man, son,
So that don't come easily,
But the 36-hour widow
And the man who came back from the sea....."
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9. |
Big Lil Hits Town
03:16
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Big Lil hit town and landed just like a hand grenade
On the 7.55 from Hull
The world once deaf to her now turned up its hearing aid
Whatever happened next it wouldn't be dull
Three Hull lasses with their best diamanté on
With hacks all acting like they're cracking a code
Been dealt an 'and they're down here upping the ante on
Don't bet against a lass from Hessle Road
Chorus
Big Lil hits town
Big Lil hits town ran the headline
Big Lil hits town
The newsroom told
The orders hold
The front page
"We 'ant come all this way to not get an answer, love
Not dressed in Sunday Best on Tuesday for nowt
I'll tell you now we're in no mood for a chancer, love
We'll stay down here until we've hammered it out."
Kings Cross'd seen nowt like it since Beatlemania
Lil, Yvonne and Mary stole the heart of the world
Hull's a lot like London, maybe colder and rainier
But it gets the best out of its West End girls
Chorus
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10. |
The Queen Of Bean Street
06:49
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"I was knee-high to your knee
When me Daddy died at sea
Being the eldest, well, I had to be the earner
A sympathetic mate
Of me father's he said: 'It's fate!
The ship I'm on we need a Deckie Learner.'
Well I learned some stuff alright
Like how to keep a fag alight
If it went out then they called you a beginner
When the waves hit twenty foot
You felt a churning in your gut
And us young uns we'd kiss goodbye to our dinner
Now the Skipper's name was Jack
And his mood was always black
He slicked his hair back like a rock and roller
And the rumours they were rife
His fishing so upset his wife
That she kept a dozen men to help console her
The First Mate were Charlie Town
He had a weakness for the brown
When his wind were up the wisest would avoid him
And there was Brynn who come from Wales
And reckoned he was hard as nails
So they called him 'Scotty' just cos it annoyed him.
I asked your Nan to be me wife
And son, I've loved her all me life
For me she'll always be the Queen of Bean Street
And from the day she wore my ring
I wouldn't have changed a single thing
Not to be the King or owner of the whole fleet
She saw Big Lil at Vicky Hall
Was with her right there through it all
She was a Headscarf Revolutionary your Nan
At sea I'd many a close shave
But she's a different kind of brave
And she made your Grandad here a very proud man
Now there was Marco, my best mate,
He'd always jump on at the gate
With his fags, a change of clothes and a clank of bottles.
We'd say: 'One day you will slip.
In many ways you're like this ship,
Neither are seaworthy at full throttle.'
But there came the fateful night
The sea rose up and proved us right
One too many snifters, well it cost him
He were taken from the rail
In a great big bloody gale
Though me and Micky tried we knew that we had lost him
But the fishing's gone now, son
The city lost and someone won
It's all money now, and everything's a 'venture'
The Cri has locked its doors
And all the rest are in the wars
St Andrews Dock's a bloody shopping centre
When we put to sea
We were one great big family
Though we took orders that a fool would never follow
They led us a merry dance
But given half a chance
I'd pack me bags and sail out there tomorrow."
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11. |
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Chorus:
Haul away, boys
Haul in the trawl, boys
Splice off the ice
Or we'll sink like a stone
Haul away, boys
Haul in the trawl, boys
Haul in the trawl
And let's head off for home
Haul away, boys
Ride the white horses
Ride the white horses
And face down the gale
And pray, boys
The engines keep churning
Just like them Ghost Ships
Once prayed for the sail
Chorus
Haul away, boys
For the wives and the children
The lives that depended
On us getting home
To that town, boys
The town we were born in
The town now in mourning
For all that we've known
Chorus
Haul away, boys
For six thousand men, boys
Six thousand men like us
Perished at sea
We're all caught now
Caught in this moment
Caught in this moment
For eternity
Chorus
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Joe Solo Scarborough, UK
Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from
Scarborough.
Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.
He is not an artist you forget in a hurry.
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