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The World Came to Springburn

from Land and Sea (2017) by Bob Leslie

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NEWS!: The World Came to Springburn has been selected for the soundtrack of 2024 documentary film 'The Last Train' by Glasgow author, screenwriter, and playwright Jack Dickson.
My mother told me about her father and brothers working at the Hyde Park Locomotive Works in Springburn, Glasgow. I remember Springburn as a child when it was still a bustling, lively place. Later in life, I became a lecturer at the college that replaced the factory. The area by then was unrecognisable, rife with unemployment, crime, drugs, and with much of the area demolished.

lyrics

Oh my grandfather worked on the big locomotives
Put his bib and brace and boots on,
Off to Hyde Park every day
He built steel shining giants to bind our world
together
In the Age of Steam that seems so far away

My mother said the young ones stood there cheering
As some gleaming black Leviathan
Was rolled out of its bay
To be carried to Australia, India, or Egypt
For the world came to Springburn in its day

For a time before the war came, my uncles stood beside him
Taking on the family business -
As they would wryly say
The seven hills would ring out to the sound of thousands working
Children singing in the back courts as they played

Who in winter would go sliding on their satchels
Down the hill at Paddy Orr's
High above the company gates
And the streets were full of people
And the people full of purpose
For the world came to Springburn in its day

But though the war was won the factories foundered
For Diesel conquered Steam and the work just fell away
And my mother's people scattered,
as so many Scots before them,
West Australia, South America, all through the USA

Now for 20 years I worked there, in the same place as my forebears
Ah, but now it's called the College,
Where the youth are shown a trade
But there's precious little work still,
And they've torn down half the buildings
And the wind blows through the spaces they have made

Westminster's man said he'd solve all the problems
But you'd hardly credit anything he'd say
He was down in London climbing
Up the ladder to a lordship
With Springburn just a step along his way
But the world came to Springburn in its day

credits

from Land and Sea (2017), released August 1, 2017

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Bob Leslie Glasgow, UK

Bob Leslie's music is now available on a "NAME YOUR OWN PRICE" basis!
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“I can think of no other songwriter who has mined this rich vein
with such lyrical ease and with no mean ear for melody. ”
Alan Reid, Battlefield Band ... more

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