Midnight Train

London treads down on you,
Puts it's boot right in your face,
Till one day you smell the coffee,
And you quit the f**king place,
I'm going to Brighton,
Riding on that midnight train,
And if she's there at the station,
I won't be coming back again.

Coach packed out to Croydon,
Where it thins out like you'd hope,
There's a lot of things in Croydon,
But there's clearly not much soap,
I'm going to Brighton...

Smell the burning passion,
All the way from Haywards Heath,
That's the thing about still waters,
You can't tell what lies beneath,
I'm going to Brighton...

Pulled up to the bumper,
Sea salt scents the midnight air,
See my girl there on the platform,
She's got glitter in her hair,
I'm going to Brighton...

Great lyrics! Midnight train... there might be one on the main line at Preston, or from Manchester Piccadilly, but we don't get late night transport where I live. Shops shut around 5pm, many buses stop around 6pm. But there are advantages to ghost towns - less pollution for a start. Last time I went to London I avoided the tube altogether because I could hardly breathe and disgusting taste in my mouth. But even above ground and walking through the parks, I soon had a film of dust on me. Brighton's a bit better...

Thanks BB, appreciate the comment! :)

It's funny, but I'm working in the United States at the moment and the Brighton Line popped in to my head last night - not homesick exactly but I find I miss the strangest things. These days you are lucky if any trains run at all of course.

I'm presently in the suburbs in PA and the dearth of public transport here sounds a lot like where you are in N/W England.

BTW last week I was in Nashville TN - now THEY appreciate writers for sure.

I lived/studied/worked in London for 20-odd years and your observations are pretty accurate. I mean, it's a great city but for a lad from the South Coast it gets to be oppressive/dirty and you miss the sea...

Brighton (for those that don't know) is on the coast 60 miles and change south of London. It was perhaps London's original "Dirty Weekend" destination and much loved by the playboy King George IV who built the famous pavilion there. By the time trains started running it was a spot you could easily slip away from London to in order to spend horizontal moments with people you were not supposed to be with...

Still pretty Bohemian today, big arts scene, thriving LGBTQ community and quite a party town - so a lot of people getting late trains south at the weekend. PLUS it has the only green MP in the whole of the UK parliament (Big shout out to the wonderful Caroline Lucas if that's not too political for the loops).

The lyric is a bit nostalgic with a scent motif in each verse coffee/sweat/passion/salt themed around four of the five main stops (London Bridge/Victoria, East Croydon, Haywards Heath, Brighton) I missed out the Airport (Gatwick) - Couldn't think of much to say about Kerosene.

I was playing it old-style rock n roll - it has a feeling of a few old favourites in there.

---

Edited by bassMonkey on Oktober 04 2022 13:38

Well I enjoyed the text and added to some Seattle style alt rock
Thanks to bassMonkey ,Mika and Fabricio :W
[wl]253762[/wl]

---

Edited by axenvocs on Oktober 13 2022 17:07

"There's a lot of things in Croydon, But there's clearly not much soap" OY!!!! :O

While I was hop picking in Kent, I spent a wild weekend in that there London. I was pretty tired and fell asleep on the train back to kent, went all the way to Brighton and then all the way back to London before I was woken up by a cleaner. Doh! So I've been to Brighton technically speaking but still no idea what it's like.

[wl]254177[/wl]