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North​’​s Gonna Rise

by Martin Craig

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about

I spent most of the 1970s playing rock’n’roll around the clubs in northern England, where audiences would arrive on Friday and Saturday nights to blow off steam and dance after a week’s hard work in factories, mines, steelworks and the like. I used to be proud that our band were popular with these men and women; my grandfather was a welder in the Tees and Clyde shipyards, my great grandfather was a stonemason, my mother worked in the torpedo labs at ICI during WWII and she was on fire watch duty at night while her young husband was flying missions in Lancaster C-Charlie with 44 Squadron, RAF.

As the Sabrejets drove between venues, the night sky would be lit with a mixture of flame from steel furnaces and tall gantries of light marking the outline of chemical plants, shipyards and pit heads. Most of that has gone, and most of the clubs have gone with it.

Now, the political party responsible for the closures and sell-offs talks about creating a ‘Northern Powerhouse’, but they don’t really have a clue as to how to do it. I wrote this song a long time ago, while I was still in that world, and I re-recorded it for the Japanese record label I was with in the mid-2000s to mark that era and my small part in it.

Why do I think the North will rise again? Because the people are tough, practical, inventive and resourceful.

lyrics

NORTH’S GONNA RISE
©Martin Craig

Looked at my money, my money was low
Looked at my watch, my watch was slow
Saturday morning, looks like rain
Time I got back on my feet again
Time I got back
Time I got back
Time I got back on my feet again

Travelling light, I’ve got no spare
Crankcase oil to grease my hair
Fires on the skyline growing dim
But I know the North’s gonna rise again
I know the North
I know the North
I know the North’s gonna rise again

Some are gonna stay, some are gonna go
Some are gonna pull every trick they know
Never mind stepping on a southbound train
‘Cause you know the North’s gonna rise again
You know the North
You know the North
You know the North’s gonna rise again

You know the North’s gonna rise again
You know the North’s gonna rise again
You know the North’s gonna rise again
You know the North’s gonna rise again
Never mind stepping on a southbound train
‘Cause you know the North’s gonna rise again, rise again

credits

released October 11, 2017
Words & Music: ©Martin Craig, 1979, 2017; All Rights Reserved.
This recording: ©Martin Craig, 2004; All Rights Reserved.

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Martin Craig Scotland, UK

Martin Craig has been playing music live for over 60 years, since he and his pals formed a skiffle group in his parents' garden, aged 10. His songwriting explores current themes; often humorously, sometimes satirically, always musically.

Martin lives 'two-thirds off-grid' in a former shepherds' bothy in a remote part of rural Scotland. ... more

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