Dave Keats songs are © copyright protected.

In My Hometown

Running havoc on the south side of town
There ain't nobody safe when the gang are around
Now it's not just the blacks who have to hide underground
In my hometown

I don' live there no more but my eyes can still see
When I go back to visit friends and family
It's a place I no longer long to be,
In my hometown.

Uppers an' downers or a blow on some grass
Or a bottle of whiskey when the scoring got hard.
These are things that I tried in my youth in the past
In my hometown.

But now they've chemicals to ruin your brain,
An' needles to push 'em up into your veins,
If you wanna catch the midnight main line train
In my hometown.

But yesterday's a thousand years ago
And tomorrow it's already here.
If I was an "I'm Alright Jack" man
I could say that I just didn't care.
But that's not the way that I was raised.
Every brother is a brother to me.
In my hometown twenty years ago
It was a place that I was proud to be a part of,
A place that I was proud to be.

The unemployment's raised by nearly ten fold,
Pits rich in coal one by one have been closed
And the rest of the industry's been privately sold
In my hometown.

The government says it's part of it's long term future plan
To take away peoples jobs, so in the dole queue they stand,
And they put it all down to the progress of man
In my hometown.

I've seen young girls and grown men alike cry,
When they've been stripped of their last piece of pride
In my hometown.
My visits now are few and further between,
There's no depravation that remains to be seen
In my hometown.

The docks are a shadow of what they used to be.
I used to watch the ships bob on the bright blue sea
Or go fishing along by the old North Quay
In my hometown.

But now disease is all your likely to catch.
The fish have all been replaced be the rats,
Lured by the filth and the stench and the trash
In my hometown.

All the ships have now long sailed away
With no industry who needs a dock anyway
In my hometown?
It's just as well I don't fish any more
Because the only place I'd catch 'em's in a goldfish bowl
In my hometown.

But yesterday's a thousand years ago
And tomorrow it's already here.
If I was an "I'm Alright Jack" man
I could say that I just didn't care
But that's not the way that I was raised.
Every brother is a brother to me.
In my hometown twenty years ago
It was a place that I was proud to be a part of,
A place that I was proud to be.

My mother still lives there and that's where she'll die.
It's better the devil you know is all she'll say.
But I'd prefer a strange saviour to a devil I know
In my hometown.

She's not happy there, that she won't deny.
As her children have grown they've slowly slipped from her side.
She's only living there until she can die
In my hometown.

With a fortune maybe I could tempt here away
But as I guess I'll never have one I guess that's where she'll stay
In my hometown.
All she's left is a sweet memory
Of the good times that used to be
In my hometown.