I was just about nineteen
When I landed on their shore
With my eyes big as headlights
Like the thousands and thousands who came before
I was going to be something . . .
Smiled at the man scrutinising my face
As I stepped down off the gangway

Came down to their city
Where I worked for many's the year
Built a hundred houses
Must've pulled half a million pints of beer
Living under suspicion
Putting up with the hatred and fear in their eyes
You can see that you're nothing but a murderer
In their eyes, we're nothing but a bunch of murderers

Hey, Johnny, can't wait till Saturday night!
Got a thirst that's raging . . .
Know a place where we can put that right
Wash away the frustration
Hose down this fire inside
But look out!
'Cause I'll tear you into pieces if you cross me.

I'm sick of watching them break up
Every time some bird brain puts us down
Making jokes on the radio . . .
Guess it helps them all drown out the sound
Of the crumbling foundations
Any fool can see the writing on the wall
But they just don't believe that its happening.

There's a crowd says I'm alright
Say they like my turn of phrase
Take me round to their parties
Like some dressed up monkey in a cage.
And I play my accordion
Oh! but when the wine seeps through the facade
It's nothing but the same old story
Nothing but the same old story

Got a brother in Boston
Says he'll send me on the fare
Just wrote me a letter
Making out that he's cleaning up out there
Two cars in the driveway.
Summer house way down on the Cape
And I know he'd fix me up in the morning

I've been thinking about it
But it seems so far to go
People say in the winter
you'd get lost underneath the snow
And there's this girl from my home place
We've been planning to move back and give it a try
So I never got around to going
That's why I never got around to going.


Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by robertcousins

Nothing but the Same Old Story song meanings
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    My Interpretation

    Perhaps this one has become dated with its lyrics but it’s a belter of a song and the culmination from his first contemporary album of 1981. The song describes a young Irishman travelling over to England for the first time and the on-going suspicion with which he is viewed. It also articulates the experience of working Irish people so vividly encompassing the emigrant’s fears, frustrations, hopes and dreams, as well as themes of racial tension, the solace of the pub, nostalgia and homesickness.

    It is a gutsy song not for the fainthearted with its high levels of energy and provocative lyrics describing the hopes and fears of this young man. Ultimately he resists the lure of the US and remains with a girl from home after being somewhat disillusioned with “nothing but the same old story”! This perception from the English may well remain that “we're nothing but a bunch of murderers” but that thinking can possibly be applied in the modern age to other ethnic minorities. Brady probably still performs this song at gigs, acoustic or with band, but probably only to insightful audiences.

    robertcousinson October 25, 2017   Link

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