Lost London from Dim Sum by The Spanish Amanda

Words:

"The best light is electric light
In any colour that you choose
From neon red to chlorine blue
And the best line is the Northern Line
It’s the line that took you home
To an attic room in Golders Green

And the best cat is the station cat
He knows the times of all the trains
The smoke and diesel oil are in his veins
And the best shop was a record shop
A shop that’s boarded up and gone
And that shop was called Lost London

Hammersmith lies
Under pigeon-coloured skies
Lost London
You could buy fanzines and cassettes
Or a colour A-Z
Lost London
It had a duffel-coated crew
Who had nothing much to do
Lost London
They’d sell you weekend Travelcards
Or old Japanese guitars
Lost London

You can go back to Maida Vale
But you can’t go back to ‘84
You can go back to Putney Bridge
No, no, you can’t go back at all
You can catch the number 46
You can go back to Kentish Town
But all the streets have moved around

They smoked roll-up cigarettes
In their corduroy kecks
Lost London
They had old comics on a shelf
And they’d let you help yourself
Lost London
They had some Go-Betweens flyers
On the Calor-gas fire
Lost London
They had a taxidermy crow
And a transistor radio
Lost London

You can go back to Kensal Rise
But you can’t unlearn the things you know
You can go back to Streatham Hill
But Christ, you’d really shouldn’t go
You search the faces on the Tube
Hand yourself in at Lost and Found
But no-one will claim you now

They didn’t care how much you spent
And they never paid the rent
Lost London
And they couldn’t give a jot
About your palace or your squat
Lost London
It united all the tribes
Of anaemic girls and boys
Lost London
It gave a vinyl education
To a velvet generation
Lost London

And when the shop shut, after dark
You couldn’t tell the boys and girls apart
You couldn’t tell the boys and girls apart
Couldn’t tell the boys and girls apart

Hammersmith lies
Under pigeon-coloured skies
Lost London
You could buy fanzines and cassettes
Or that colour A-Z
Lost London
It had a duffel-coated crew
Who had nothing much to do
Lost London
They’d sell you weekend Travelcards
Or old Japanese guitars
Lost London

And the best line is the Northern Line
And the best girl is a Yorkshire girl… who moved to London
And the best cat is a station cat
And the best wine is stolen wine
And the car is a Swedish car… made in 1974
And the best hair is back-combed hair
And the best coat is an army coat
And the best guitar is a green guitar..."

• Alternative
• British
• London
• c86
• indie
• jangle
• twee
• United Kingdom