Dreadnought

from Northern Sketches by Gary Bunting

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lyrics

Dreadnought

I remember the first song I learnt to play on the guitar
Lessons every Monday
A roomful of people playing
A string buzzing, flat singing, tone deaf version
Of ‘Tom Dooley’
A murder ballad and boy, did we murder it!

We were a raggle taggle bunch
Old and young, fathers and sons
Hippy mums, young punks
Lonely souls, people on the dole
Folkies, okie dokies and the break time smokies
Indie kids, the already dids
The never gonna happens and me
A guy turned up with a Les Paul
Ready to rock’n’roll
We’re all with cat gut ancient strings
Car boot sale finds and necks that bend
Another said he knew some of ‘Stairway To Heaven’
I’m pretty sure he played every second

Big Jim Johnson taught us the chords
To folk songs from days of yore
Skiffle tunes and pop tones
Little riffs and flummoxing solos
Big Jim played this Dreadnought Yamaha
Mother of pearl inlay around the curves
He wore it on his bulbous belly
Like an ornamental belt buckle

I remember the first song I wrote
It was a muddy Woody Guthrie rip-off
I couldn’t sing, I could barely play
I had no life experience and
Poetry was new to me
But, three chords and the truth
Y’know

credits

from Northern Sketches, released October 22, 2021

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Hello America Stereo Cassette

A new record label releasing audio recordings of writers' work. Poems backed by noise. Novels as audio books. Stories on cassettes. Curated by Adam Gnade. Currently accepting submissions.