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Poet's Corner
SONG SO BLUE
18-08-2008
The Stirrer's poet laureate Brendan Hawthorne pays tribute to Birmingham's spin doctors whose advertising leaflets showed another city with the same name in the United States. To be sung to the tune of Lynrd Skynrd's Sweet Home Alabama.
Sweet home Birmingham
The ad men have gone and misplaced you
The second city’s had a retouch
in a high gloss image that’s
no longer blue
Is it you?
That iconic skyline has now been replaced
with a red-faced southern state view
And maybe those ad men will remember
to get the urban backdrop right next time
Now payment’s due
Is it true?
Sweet home Birmingham
There’s more recycling for you to do
All those leaflets that have been mocked up
have made a council mockery
out of you
by the fast and few
Congratulations on your efficiency aims
But someone’s put their carbon footprint down
One with no sense of geography
Are you employing people
from out of town?
It makes you frown
Sweet home Birmingham
The ad men have gone and misplaced you
The second city’s had a retouch
in a high gloss image that’s
no longer blue
Is it really you?
If this is Brummagem
Where’s the Bullring?
And the Rotunda too
If this is Brummagem
Where’s Selfrige’s?
New Street Station
And Snow Hill?
If this is Brummagem………….
Repeat ad nauseum to the fade out
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