The Big Smoke is the subject of the fifth Follycast:
London Songs.
Having spent nearly ten years in London, I have plenty of fond memories of the capital. But it's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it experience. And as of last year it is now the most expensive city in the world (according to
this report).
So 30 odd minutes celebrating or condemning London Town.
Follycast #5:
London SongsTracklisting:
Lord Kitchener - London Is The Place For Me
(The Real) Tuesday Weld - Bathtime in Clerkenwell
Noonday Underground - London
The Smiths - London
Animals That Swim - London Bridge
Calexico - The Guns Of Brixton
Prozak for Lovers - London Calling
Sparklehorse - London
The Crabapples - London Belongs To Me (Part 2)
The Clash - London's Burning
The Pogues - London You're A Lady
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
And here is William Blake's poem from 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' as arranged by Sparklehorse:
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse
