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OXFORD STREET IN THE BLACKOUT

by David Heavenor

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Nick Smith
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kshema
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about

I was reading a Graham Greene book about his war years in London during the Blitz and he said 'In Oxford Street in the blackout you can see the stars..' which suggested itself as a song so it became a lyric about RAF pilots over the English countryside. I also started reading That Summer by Scottish author Andrew Greig which is on the same theme and also reading Summer's Lease by John Mortimore so the line became 'That summer's lease....' I also have a thing about old 2nd world war aerodromes for some reason, especially deserted ones- they seem to have a ghostly charge . Some years later I was on holiday in Cambridge with my son Mark and we visited Duxord and also Henden which informed the song which I finished on piano.

lyrics

IN OXFORD STREET IN THE BLACKOUT


In Oxford Street in the Blackout you can see the stars
We watched the buzz bombs fizzing
Like lit cigars
In Oxford Street in the blackout
I fell in love with you
The way you turned your collar back
And laughed at me in blue

That summer's lease
The blue boy's blood grew cold in France
Then spinning back to Hornchurch
In a whirling dance
There goes a Messerschmidt
Peeling from the sun
Bang, bang go my Browning guns
And Fritz is quite undone

So Mary
Save Me

So boy in the darkened town
See the searchlights dance in the sky
Boy in this darkened room
Your country's fate lies at peace in your eyes
But then a man walks in and says
'What are you doing here? Didn't you know there's a war on?"

In Oxford Street in the Blackout
The girls are caught indoors
Dreaming of their sweethearts
Through the twilight hours
Their hearts go soft in the big band sound
The wireless crackles on
Mamas ironing the creases out of Mr Churchill's boys

credits

released September 20, 2014
David Heavenor: Voice, Piano & Guitar
David Scott: Voice, Glockenspiel

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David Heavenor Edinburgh, UK

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David Heavenor is a Scottish singer songwriter based in Edinburgh Scotland. He has produced 8 albums plus 3 EP's.

I'm Watching Rosanna. ' An insightful song....beautifully written and observed. Iain Anderson. BBC Radio

'Jenny & the Cold Caller. One of the best songs ever written...' Ricky Ross ... more

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