The Town That I Loved So - Pierre Bensusa

In my memory I will always see

The town that I have loved so well

Where our school played

ball by the gasyard wall

And we laughed through

the smoke and the smell.

Going home in the rain

running up the dark lane

Past the jail and down

behind the fountain

Those were happy days in

so many many ways

In the town I loved so well.

There was music there in the Derry air

Like a language that

we all could understand

I remember the day

that I earned my first pay

When I played in the small pick-up band.

There I spent my youth

and to tell you the truth

I was sad to leave it all behind me

For I'd learned about life

and I found a wife

In the town I loved so well.

But when I returned how

my eyes have burned

To see how a town could be

brought to it's knees

By the armored cars

and the bombed-out bars

And the gas that hangs on to every breeze.

Now the army's installed by

that old gasyard wall

And the damned barbed

wire gets higher and higher

With their tanks and their guns,

oh my god what have they done

To the town I loved so well.

Now the music's gone but they carry on

For their spirit's been

bruised never broken

They will not forget but their hearts are set

On tomorrow and peace once again.

but what's done is done

and what's won is won

And what's lost is lost and gone forever

I can only pray for a bright brand-new day

In the town I loved so well.

I can only pray for a bright brand-new day

In the town I loved so well.