Filming the Blues

Listen on Suno.com Fliming the Blues

The best jobs were the furthest away
We’d pull out the tattered A to Z
Tony would drive, and if we were three
Mark in the back would catch a few Zees

Putting film on windows was a tough row to hoe
Carrying equipment to and fro
Scaling windows inside and out
Up and down stairs, no lounging about
Perching on ledges, arms outstreched
Always more film that needs to be fetched

Fix new blades in the cutting machine
Pull steady and smooth and she cuts like a dream
Check the Solarfilm reflectivity
Very little intellectual activity
The day is dragging, the job seems endless
Arms are tired and need a rest
Tony sighs and is unimpressed

Palethorpes pie factory looms large in the past
An ocean of dirty exterior glass
The roof curved and sloping,
Not much room to pass
More than once I fell on my ass


The pigs were squealing, The air was rife,
With an odious odor, Depeche Mode played New Life
My bro came with me on this job once or twice
We tried our best to have some fun
Twas the summer of 1981

One more job of which I’ll lament
The pottery factory in Stoke on Trent
The bowls they made by slip deposition
A strong and durable composition
Toilets previously just for the lords
Industrial icon, historic Twyfords
Now succumbed to globalization
A nostalgic reminder of this once great nation.

Lunchtime was the highlight of the day
We’d eat on the road, or in the van
Never with Tony, the Plymouth Brethren
Whose religious beliefs, he’d sometimes intone
Required that he only eat with his own

All in all, the days were droll
Working at Westgate Solar Control
We met lots of people of unequal rank
At factories , businesses, also the bank
Birmingham was our main stomping ground
But we did jobs in odd spots for miles around

The times were tough, the money was lean
It’s easy to ask, what might have been
I’m thankful it ‘s over , coz I had always foreseen
In a crash, the lethal cutting machine,
Hung behind my head in the van on a skeen
Ready to decapitate my head off clean.

I’ll close with our everlasting refrain
The context is lacking, and I won’t explain
Other than to assert our old adage
A stare, a pause, then “increase the dosage” !