As a holiday treat, we bring you Trade’s End by traditional folk band Whistling Treason from Bradford on Avon. You can listen to it here:
https://soundcloud.com/whistlingtreason/trades-end-demo-24bit
Here are the lyrics:
Crumb cocoa and dates,
Bottled beer stacked in crates,
Damn all the Waterways Board!
Coal by the ton for the
Old ironworks run,
Damn all the Waterways Board!
Chorus:
Damn em to hell,
Sound out their death knell,
For we all can see trouble descending.
Hang em up high,
Let the crows peck their eyes,
Damn em to hell, the trades ending.
So drop all the paddles,
Shove open the gates,
Damn all the Waterways Board!
There’s a cargo to ship,
And it mustn’t be late,
Damn all the Waterways Board!
The bottom’s too close to the top,
We all say.
Damn…
The pound’s full of silt,
So we scrape it away.
Damn…
We ne’er got paid proper,
For our work in the War,
Damn…
Just rations and wages,
Far less than before.
Damn…
They’d shut us all down now,
If they had a chance.
They’d turf the cut over,
With no second glance.
For the trade will soon pass,
And the boats will be gone.
And now in their place,
Roaring lorries have come.
Now the nossers, and jossers,
And noddy boats cruise.
They rev and they ram,
With their cargo of booze.
Copyright Whistling Treason 2015.
Tags: arts and culture, Bradford-on-Avon, canal carrying, heritage, History, music, Whistling Treason