Peter Cordwell’s lyrics for a probable song: Going home to die


I went back to volunteer on the Downham Estate

Reminding old folk how to play Crib

My wife drove me there so I wouldn’t be late

…bib bib


Welcomed to Wesley Halls by everyone there

Together we enjoyed every minute

Amazing how much love is there to be shared

…innit?


I went there thinking of doing some good

Without having to wonder why

It was all just part of going back home

,,,to die


Fifteen two, fifteen four

The first scores you learn in Cribbage

I’d much rather die on the Downham Estate

Than pass in Blackheath Village


These days I’m a bit of a projects man

Mostly on the Left

Like you I’m sick to death of Trump

…bereft


As a kid I played up Foster Park

With Mary and ‘Uncle Mac’

I still carry the memories but make sure I never

…look back


I went to the school with the very same name

Seven sevens are forty-nine

The teachers all did their best for us

…benign


Fifteen two, fifteen four

The first scores you learn in Cribbage

I’d much rather die on the Downham Estate

Than pass in Blackheath Village


Peter is a semi-retired journalist who edited the South East London Mercury in Deptford. He was involved in the Mercury’s seven-year campaign with fans to get Charlton Athletic FC back to The Valley in 1992. With musician Carl Picton he wrote ‘One Georgie Orwell’, a proletarian musical tribute to George Orwell. He also played football for VPS in the Finnish Premier Division in 1975/76.

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