You're alright in the end if you know where you are
The rest takes care of its own
A map and a compass is all that you need
When you're weary and longing for home
Set the sail, weigh the anchor, and haul across brine and foam
In a climate where grief fills the air
Every fresh breath renews despair
And the promise of grace is forever withheld
And all the clamoring prayers and bells
Are vain idol noises of souls broken past repair
I can stand the dirt and the crowds and the cold
And the daily doses of pain
I can live if I need underneath tide and wind?
But I just can't stand any more rain
Shenandoah, I long to hear you, roll away you rolling river
Haul away we're bound to go, across the wide Missouri
Here's London my mother my home
The fount of all glories, in gracious repose
All the banks of the Thames moored in tradition
Here's Milton and Marlowe and Greavsey and Dickens
God save the queen and god bless her glorious throne
Tell me sir, what do you see?
Madame, Princes and palaces and maybe the queen
Manicured orchids, Flowers and dog shows
Where people with orchids in buttonholes stroll
Gay, handsome faces, rounding their mouths over tea
That's not what it's like not in Acton or Tottenham not Suffolk not Kensil rides
There's acres of nothing but rubble and wretchedness
Grey upon grey, sigh upon sigh.
Shenandoah, I long to hear you, roll away you rolling river
To sail across the stormy ocean
Haul away, we're bound to go, across the wide Missouri
First its breakfast of biscuits and tea
At the Victory Café, my best friend and me
Look at yesterday's sports in today's Herald Tribune'
Surveying the station we'd rather be
Past boiling faces and mouths full of brown broken teeth
Good evening sir, what will it be?
The usual please, a pint of bitter, pork pie and crisps for my dinner
A packet of number six please
Pull a pint for old Fred over there by the fruit machine
Consider this pub full of England's fine treasures,
These thirty odd sets of malarial eyes
In second suits and broken umbrellas,
Cursing their dogs, their luck and their lives
Shenandoah, I took a notion, roll away you rolling river
To sail across the stormy ocean
Haul away, we're bound to go, across the wide Missouri
In England I first lost my heart
In summer the grass grew tall
In autumn while dirty winds blew and pursued us
We sailed paper boats through the leaves on the pond
Then it rained every day, it seemed every day all day long
It was day after long rainy day
Of stumbling in shadows and turning away from the thousands small horrors
Nicely run funerals, dancing sorrows and endless parades
Of grey tiny souls in wool overcoats gathering rain
For five months in London I never saw nothing
But wet starving pigeons and pints of warm of beer
While cats clawed in windowpanes cursing the rain
We were sobbing in riddles, talking in tears
Shenandoah, I love your daughter, roll away you rolling river
I'll take her cross the shining water
Haul away we're bound to go, across the wide Missouri
From softly sweet Thames to the sea past the flat sullen roofs and water stained streets
East past St. Pauls past the gasworks at Hackney past black slanting shambles of... Stepney
Run softly sweet Thames
Past the rain and rubbish and tears
For every poor soul who somehow stops crying there's another poor soul that begins
So the sum of tears remains always constant
Filling the days, the months and the years
Shenandoah, I long to hear you, roll away you rolling river
Shenandoah I long to hear you
Haul away we're bound to go, across the wide Missouri