Catch The Tide - Patrick Rose

Song Information

I moved house into a bit of Sheffield that has a reputation for being rough (which nobody mentioned before I moved in). It actually isn't as rough as most people make out, compared to Tinsley which is slap bang between Rotherham and Sheffield. That bit is right next to Magna which used to be a big steel mill and it does not feel safe at all. I kind of wanted to deconstruct what happened.

This took me over a year to write and the ending wasn't what I initially intended. I originally planned to leave the man in question alive but with Alzheimers - there's still a verse or two somewhere in the back of my mind that has that ending, but I wrote the last verse and felt it was the right ending for such a depressing situation.

The term "melting shop chap" is one that I originally heard in Ray Hearne's song of the same name. The melting shop chaps were the posh steel workers from what I can tell who'd be fairly experienced (and had a reputation for playing pranks on each other, even with the molten steel in action).

I accompany myself on guitar when I play this. The tuning I use CGCGCD, with a capo on fret 2.

Come sail with me love, let us go catch the tide
Get away from all this, from the pain and the pride
Let us drift on the ocean beneath the blue sky
If we run now we'll make it, let's run and we'll go catch the tide

When I was a young girl you were in your prime
A melting shop chap and you swore you'd be mine
With a face black as coal from the heat of the fire
And those lovely strong hands that I'd always admire

Steel's a strong trade and we'll always have this
When you heard from your mates they were closing the pits
They'll need steel for these new fancy cars
Though I know you loved helping the shipwrights by far

While you were so hopeful I knew there's no chance
While the fools up at Whitehall did their bloody dance
One by one, I watched as they fell
And when you came home that day you knew I could tell

You shouted in anger there's no bloody jobs
For a man who is fifty and worked like a dog
And you stood there so silent I watched the tears fall
My melting shop chap who had always stood tall

It was a cold winter's night I awoke from my sleep
There was no one beside me downstairs you did creep
I lay there so silent, I heard the chair fall
My melting shop chap who had always stood tall.