Smokin’ Lemon Sevens through a broken bottle neck
Smokin’ Lemon Sevens through a broken bottle neck
Her pills ground down like powder, ’til her troubles get no louder
Then a little infant whimpering for Ma to come and help
Passed out down a damp and dark romantic alleyway
A stranger whispered in her ear then carried her away
Noddin’ to the revvin’ top deck of the 67
On the Bus down to Kildare the love affair began
Here’s Me head Me arse is comin’ down the Straffan Road
A bag of cans in hand a red-haired lover boy in tow
The locals say she’s shady, O but she was a lady
With a love so fine and genuine that very few could know
Sleepin’ in a two-man tent down by the Royal Canal
Drinkin’ in the Harbour Field with all her Traveller pals
She’d love a country cottage but she hadn’t got a sausage
Sleepin’ in a two-man tent down by the Royal Canal
But love won’t stop the winter when you’re on the bottom rung
The cider got his liver and the cold got in his lungs
She pretended not to notice, with her bandages and poultice
‘Til he got infections and the cold got in his lungs
They treated them like vagrants and they said the ward was full
There on the floor of the James Connolly Memorial
Her prince he slept a thousand years, she wept a puddle of tears
As she threw his few belongings off the cold Bull Island Pier
All along the North Strand with no lover boy in tow
Back into the City to the only life she’d know
She needed one to kill the pain a love like Hers can know no shame
Met an auld friend down a lonely lane rekindled the old flame
Smokin’ Lemon Sevens through a broken bottle neck
Smokin’ Lemon Sevens through a broken bottle neck
Her pills ground down like powder, ’til her troubles get no louder
Then a little infant whimpering for Ma to come and help
A little infant whimpering for Ma to come and help
This hard story brings us right inside the tragic lives that many inhabit. When I heard Briany sing this song I wanted to learn it, get inside it, live with it. Singing this song takes me out of it. Singing a song like this makes my work feel worthwhile.
A few months back Valerie and I encountered a young woman on Thomas St, Dublin. Her condition was heart breaking. Every time I sing this song, I see her clearly in my mind and hope she is alive and recovering.