From the recording Learn To Live Again
I grew up on a daily dose of British music, television, and culture, and I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to visit what I thought was the artistic centre of the world. Had I arrived too late? Or was I expecting too much from my childhood fantasies?
Lyrics
Round about teatime, step off the train
Victoria station, out into the rain
Taxis waiting to take me on my way
Into the city, try to brighten up my day
Sink a little underneath the skin
All the mystery disappears within
Oh, Britannia, where has the magic gone?
Once so mighty, now you don’t look so strong
The streets of London don’t cross over with the stories I‘ve been told
Oh Britannia, why'd you have to get so cold?
Seems so civil down by Trafalgar Square
But past the cobblestones, the city’s been stripped bare
Every store in Tin Pan Alley looks the same
Oxford street’s so upper-class, the Circus lights have lost their flame
Can’t you leave a light on just for me?
For all my dreams and everything I hoped to be?
Crawl out from the reverie
Reassess the fantasy
Why am I still carrying the weight
of previous generations
and all their expectations?
I might as well be 30 years too late…
How much longer am I going to have to wait?