Basildon and
Pitsy,
Tilbury and
Dagenham
Southend -on -Sea,
Raynham and
Vash
It's the
A13
It's the
A13
Before it ended up in
Paris, they nearly built
Disneyland and rain and marshes in
Essex.
Just around the corner from
the sewage works and the
Ford factory of
Old
Dagenham, where
my mum and dad once did
night shifts just after I was born.
Stitching seat covers and
smoking cheap cigarettes.
When I was seventeen I
knew a man from
Raynham, a thin man called
Trevor who lived on the
seventeenth floor of a high -rise,
a hopeless grey building dotted with dirty curtains with
smoke and the sad
TV pouring from the windows.
Basildon and
Pitsy,
Tilbury and
Dagenham
Southend on
Sea,
Raynham and
Vash
It's the
A13
It's the
A13
I used to buy acid and speed from
Trevor,
running the risk of murder catching the lift
up and up and up, and the secret knock,
knock knock knockity knock.
It was the best view that poverty could give,
Trevor had two kids,
a bad speed habit and
TV's all turned on but with no sound.
There was always brick -sized lumps of
hash on the tables and dirty floors.
Always
Tupperware filled with powders on
the kitchen surfaces.
Stacey,
Trevor's girlfriend,
was a retired stripper and she was pretty.
Too pretty
for a man with only three teeth
and nine burglary convictions.
She was always
cooking chicken and
the kids are always eating it.
Grubby little boys with big
smiles bouncing tennis balls off
the outer walls and watching silent
TV.
Basildon and
Pitsy,
Tilbury and
Agnam
Southend -on -Sea,
Raynham and
Vash
It's the
A13
It's the
A13
I didn't like staying there too long
But once when the
sun was setting west over
the city I stayed for an hour
waiting for my drugs
to
Shulla, sitting on the balcony watching
East
London dying, counting conversations
and distant clouds
and wondering how
Mickey
Mouse was going to fit in round there.
Dagenham ain't no place for
Disneyland, there's no jazz clubs,
and my old man said,
Son, you can never trust
a town without jazz clubs
Basildon and
Pitsy,
Tilbury and
Agnham
Southend -on -Sea,
Reynham and
Vance
It's the
A13, it's the
A13
It's the
A13, it's the
A13, it's
A13
you