We had no way of staying afloat,
We had to leave on a ferryboat.
Economic refugees,
On the run to Germany.
We had the back of Maggie's hand,
Times were tough in Geordie-land.
We got our tools and working gear
And humped it all from Newcastle to here.
Why aye man.
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man,
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man.
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man,
Why aye, why aye man.
We're nomad tribes, travelling boys,
In the dust and dirt and the wrecking noise.
Drills and hammers, diggers and picks,
Mixing concrete, laying bricks.
There's English, Irish, Scots, the lot.
United Nations what we got.
Brickies, chippies, every trade.
German building, British made.
Nay more work on Maggie's farm.
Head away down the autobahn.
Mine's a Portakabin bed,
Or a bunk in a Nissen hut instead.
There's plenty Deutschmarks here to earn.
And German tarts are wunderschön.
German beer is chemical free.
Germany's alright with me.
Sometimes I miss my River Tyne,
But you're my pretty fraulein.
Tonight we'll drink the old town dry,
Keep our spirit levels high.
Sometimes I miss my River Tyne,
But you're my pretty fraulein.
Tonight we'll drink the old town dry,
Keep our spirit levels high.
Sometimes I miss my River Tyne,
But you're my pretty fraulein.
Tonight we'll drink the old town dry,
Keep our spirit levels high.
Wir konnten uns nicht mehr über Wasser halten,
und setzten uns per Fähre ab,
Als Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge
nach Deutschland.
Maggie Thatchers Hand traf uns hart.
Die Zeiten waren schlecht im Geordie-Land.
Wir nahmen Werkzeug und Arbeitsklamotten
Und schleppten alles von Newcastle bis hierher.
Why aye man.
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man,
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man.
Why aye, why aye man.
Why aye man,
Why aye, why aye man.
Wir sind ein Nomadenstämme, Durchreisende.
Im Staub und Dreck und Abrisslärm.
Bohrer und Hämmer, Schaufeln und Hacken.
Mischen Beton, mauern Ziegel.
Engländer sind dabei, Iren und Schotten, en masse.
Vereinten Nationen, was wir wurden ...
Maurer, Schreiner, alles Mögliche.
Deutsche Häuser, made in Britanny
Keine Arbeit mehr auf Maggies Farm.
Los geht´s, die Autobahn runter.
Hab ein Wohncontainerbett,
oder ne Koje in einer Baubaracke.
Hier gibt´s viele Deutschmarks zu verdienen.
Und deutsche Nutten sind wunderschön.
Deutsches Bier ist chemiefrei.
Deutschland find ich gut!
Manchmal vermisse ich meinen River Tyne,
Aber du bist mein schönes fraulein.
Heut nacht trinken wir die Altstadt leer!
Und halten unsern Level hoch ...
Manchmal vermisse ich meinen River Tyne,
Aber du bist mein schönes fraulein.
Heut nacht trinken wir die Altstadt leer!
Und halten unsern Level hoch ...
Manchmal vermisse ich meinen River Tyne,
Aber du bist mein schönes fraulein.
Heut nacht trinken wir die Altstadt leer!
Und halten unsern Level hoch ...
Hohes Lied auf Germany!
Geordie-Land: Geordie=regionaler Spitzname für Bevölkerung um Newcastle upon Tyne
sprit level: doppeldeutig=1.Wasserwaage 2.Alkoholpegel
Margaret Thatcher: sehr unternehmerfreundliche Wirtschaftspolitik,
bekämpft Gewerkschaften. Senkung des Spitzensteuersatzes von 83 auf 60 %.
Beendet einjährigen Bergarbeiterstreik siegreich,
beschneidet Rechte der Gewerkschaften erheblich, Inflation steigt an
M.K.:
“One of those tunes that comes for a number of different reasons. It actually means
“Well, of course” in Geordie, “Why, yes.” You still hear it all the time.
Jimmy Nail was shooting the new “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet” series, and he happened
to be saying that the North American Indians, in a lot of their music, they sounded
just the same. That’s what put the idea in my head. That, and Seamus Heaney
sent me a copy of
his lovely book of poems that won the Whitbread prize.
He’d written on the inside ‘To Mark, keep your level high.’ I was thinking about that too.
On a building site you could always tell the brickies and the carpenters by their spirit
levels and I was always fascinated by my dad’s spirit level, I was always looking at
the little green bubble in the middle. I was really writing about the period in which
the original “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet” was set, it struck me as ironic that there were
refugees going from here to Germany, not just to Germany of course,
they were going all over the place. So it’s a bit of a mish-mash, the whole thing,
but I found myself writing about the Thatcher period. It wasn’t written as anything
to do with the new TV series, in fact they just took the chorus, which is only three
words anyway, and used that for the end. Jimmy was telling me he’s sure it’s going
to be a St.James’ Park [Newcastle United FC ground] terrace song, which is territory
I’ve been in before, in fact the Theme from Local Hero is the United theme tune.
There was a little spell when it was dropped, when Ruud Gullit was running the team,
but as soon as he went, it came back again, mysteriously…”
