The Canal Forgets My Name

Instrumental Intro

Verse 1

They drained the lock on a Tuesday

Barges gone to rust

Wharves where my father stacked the coal

Now gravel and old dust

I walked the towpath slowly

Counting every stone

The water gave no answer

So I counted them alone

Chorus

Goodbye to the gasholders

Goodbye to the grimy tide

They built their glass and steel towers

Where the working boats would ride

Goodbye to the gasholders

The canal forgets my name

And the cranes that used to swing for me

Swing nowhere all the same

Verse 2

My mother hung her washing

Above the Regent's cut

The barges hummed like organs

Before the gates were shut

I learned my letters on a bollard

Whistled for the tide

Now the pigeons own the barges

And I have nowhere to hide

Chorus

Goodbye to the gasholders

Goodbye to the grimy tide

They built their glass and steel towers

Where the working boats would ride

Goodbye to the gasholders

The canal forgets my name

And the cranes that used to swing for me

Swing nowhere all the same

Bridge

Coal dust and canal dust

Chalk marks on the wall

Somebody's whole life rose and fell

Beside that green canal

Verse 3

I brought my daughter down here

She asked me what it was

I said a river made of memory

She said it looked like mud

The water still remembers

Though the water cannot say

The barges left in autumn

And the wharves just washed away

Chorus

Goodbye to the gasholders

Goodbye to the grimy tide

They built their glass and steel towers

Where the working boats would ride

Goodbye to the gasholders

The canal forgets my name

And the cranes that used to swing for me

Swing nowhere all the same

Instrumental Outro