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A Blackbird Sang On Berkeley Street

from A Northern Coastal Town: Hull In The Blitz by Joe Solo & Rebekah Findlay

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about

My Great Aunt Ida and her youngest daughter Sylvie were killed on Albany Street visiting her mother-in-law, and her eldest daughter Gwendoline survived because she'd stayed home.

I don't know why she stayed home, but in the song it is because of an argument and she has had to learn to live with the consequences.
For those of you who don't know the area Berkeley Street is a stone's throw from the scene. To make it even more haunting, my Dad grew up there and as a kid played in the bomb crater that marked the site of his Auntie's death.

And, of course Berkeley Street allows me to subvert that famous song.

lyrics

Whenever I hear Vera Lynn sing that song
Well it takes me straight back to that day
My Nanna's house when her cat brought that mouse in
And Sylvie screamed then ran away
How Great Grandad sat on her fireplace
And how she made us custard too sweet
Then I'm all alone in the rubble there
As a blackbird sang on Berkeley Street

Whenever I let my mind wander too far
Well it takes me straight back to that night
I hear in my mind my words cruel and unkind
A girl of 15 in a flight
I hear Mam slamming the old front door
And me sulking under the sheets
Then I'm all alone in the rubble there
As a blackbird sang on Berkeley Street

credits

from A Northern Coastal Town: Hull In The Blitz, released July 16, 2021
Joe Solo

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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. ... more

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