"Dirty Old Town"

The Pogues start this off with an intro on harmonica.

Written by James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, a British folk singer, songwriter, labour activist and actor

The song was written about Salford, Lancashire, England, the city where MacColl was born and brought up. The first verse refers to the gasworks croft, which was a piece of open land adjacent to the gasworks, and then speaks of the old canal, which was the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The line in the original version about smelling a spring on “the Salford wind� is sometimes sung as “the sulphured wind�. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind “smoky�.

Written in 1949, it was popullarized by the Dubliners in the mid-60s, and has been performed by many ohters, including Roger Whittiker and U2. The Pogues version is used by supporters of Liverpool FC in tribute to Virgil van Dijk. It is also used by supporters of rocketry in tribute to Wernher von Braun.

  DIRTY OLD TOWN

I met(found) my love by the gasworks croft, 
Dreamed a dream by the old canal;
Kissed my girl by the factory wall. 
Dirty old town, dirty old town 

Clouds a-drifting across the moon, 
Cats a-prowling on their beat; 
Spring's a girl in the streets at night. 
Dirty old town, dirty old town 

Heard a siren from the docks, 
Saw a train set the night on fire; 
Smelled the spring on the smoky(Salford/Sulphur'd) wind.
Dirty old town, dirty old town 

I'm going to make a good(big) sharp axe,
Shining steel tempered in the fire; 
I'll(We'll) chop you down like an old dead tree.
Dirty old town, dirty old town