This was an attempt at a kind of Streets of London time song but probably with a heavier - keyboard based feel. Never finished or revised it - it remains a first and discarded draft. It's more in a stream of concsciousness form. Included here more because of the Coventry interest and references.
Can't remember the exact circumstances - it was back in 1970, I was at the Coventry Arts Umbrella teatime - ish on a Saturday. Was waiting around to go to the Lanch Poly gig later in the evening.
I think there was a young lady involved who I felt something for but who walked in with someone else. I decided to walk off the blues and left Queen Victoria Rd. and followed the inner ring road to the turn off for the Hope and Achor pub and Colin Campbell (Village Disco).
As I walked words and images were forming. Streets of London was popular at the time, often sung at the Umbrella Club. That was in my head and I saw plenty of things to make me feel less down as I walked along the ring road which are mentioned in the lyric. I saw Charlie along the way who I think is the Ivan in the press cutting. He used to sit on the wall outside the Golden Cross (where the Diggers Hole (an open art gallery located in a Coventry bomb hole) and shyly ask if we had a 'penny'. Everyone talked to him. There were others lying in the doorways. Evening was breaking - inky clouds of night were creeping across the sky. Things always feel worse then as the world seems to close in on you.
Half way along the ringroad, a white minibus pulled up full of long haired, bearded musicians. Seeing my long hair and trench coat, they figured I'd know where the Lanch Poly was. I looked at the side of the van - It said Blodwyn Pig - the 70's blues band. I was planning to go and see them later on. Meanwhile I had my own blues to write not that it was written in a blues form. I directed them and continued on to the Hope and Anchor and Village. Listening to a local band until the Lanch opened.
MY SORROW HID IN SHAME by Trev Teasdel Coventry 1970
And darkness flowed in like flood waters, the sun went to bed with the sea.
The moon now on nightwatch threw stars in the sky for to see.
I walked along the ring road footpath where vagrants and down and outs often pass
And imagined myself to be one in the low state I was in.
I passed the wreck of a car to which I likened myself
Passed gravestones in the yard, gazed over at the Church of God
I stopped by a sign which read Salvation Army Hostels
And thought of hitching a ride But there was no traffic was in sight.
Til I saw the ghastly figure of a man who had been cast aside
Passed a couple in the doorway, ignored their request for a light.
I continued down a side road to a pub called the Hope and Anchor
Where beer smells make the wind unstable but found no hope nor anchor.
I passed houses now demolished, like my dreams lay in ruins on the ground
I thought of the face of the one I loved, and tears ran away from my eyes
I took a deep breath, the air tasted of meths, Oh to see the poor site of two city tramps
Lying like sacks on the ground, one begged a coin and the other a fag
My heart felt pity but pride held me back from giving my sympathy away.
As I entered the hall of a bright discotheque, my sorrow hid in shame
To think of all the friends and things I possess, compared to the men whose souls are lost
In the doorways of no consequence.
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