More songs by Aaron Rowe
Description
Somewhere between the kitchen window overlooking the damp roofs and the call that you don’t immediately decide to answer, there is a song - almost a letter. With that “hey, ma” that makes a lump in my throat.
It contains everything at once: longing for a home with a shabby fence, pride in oneself “over there, across the sea,” and such a simple, but not at all simple request - to just be on the other end. To check on Mick and remind him that even the biggest city cannot outshine the one who was there when no one knew that you could fly.
The song is like a voice that you listen to a hundred times. Not because you forget, but because you want to stay close a little longer. Even if only in words.
Lyrics and translation
Original
You can see the mansions from the council estate
And there’s a big old rain cloud, forming overhead now, as I leave this place
‘Cause down here no one’s special, and they’d kill ya if ya tried
But they’d help you in a heartbeat, if they couldn’t stop you bleeding, they’d die there by your side
Hey ma, I crossed the sea today
Would you mind checking in on mick for me
Tell me you know I had to go but I wanted to stay
Hey… hey ma
Is Pj off the drink still
Is it raining up in shankill
Yenno id be doing alright
If I had someone to shoot the breeze with
Just once in every while
Hey Ma, I’m just calling to say
All the words that’ll make you think I breeze through the day
Yeah I know it’s just an hour on the aeroplane
But that doesn’t stop it feeling like a world away
Hey… hey ma
Living in the city
And although the lights are pretty
Nobody stops see the beauty
Of what is going on
What’s really going on
Hey ma, I crossed the street today
I said hello to a stranger but he away
I’m sending love from a street where no one knows my name
I hope when I get back that things will be the same
Hey… hey ma