Today’s slow drag is with “Jimmie Standing in The Rain,” from “National Ransom,” released in 2010. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

Show Notes:

Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy

Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com

Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Jimmie Standing in The Rain”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Jimmie_Standing_In_The_Rain

“Jimmie Standing in The Rain”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1PbA88w9jk

“Scrapping first-class train carriages leaves us all in third”: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/17/chris-grayling-scrapping-first-class-trains-leaves-us-all-in-third

“First, second third class train travel in 19040s & 1950s Britain”: trains-class.htm">https://www.1900s.org.uk/1940s-trains-class.htm

Third Class rail travel ends in Britain: https://moneyweek.com/394050/3-june-1956-third-class-rail-travel-ends-in-britain

Tweed’s history: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-tweed#what-are-the-origins-of-tweed

“Where London’s history happened — in the pub”: https://londonspubswherehistoryreallyhappened.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/the-argyll-arms/

“The London Trocadero, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus,” Introduction to the early years: http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/TrocaderoLeicesterSquareLondon.htm 

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1

 

"Jimmie Standing in the Rain" lyrics:

Third-Class ticket in his pocket

Punching out the shadows underneath the sockets

Tweed coat turned up against the fog

 

Slow coaches rolling o'er the moor

Between the very memory

And approaches of war

 

Stale bread curling on a luncheon counter

Loose change lonely, not the right amount

 

Forgotten Man of an indifferent nation

Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station

Somebody's calling you again

The sky is falling

Jimmie's standing in the rain

 

Nobody wants to buy a counterfeited prairie lullaby in a colliery town

A hip flask and fumbled skein with some stage-door Josephine is all he'll get now

Eyes going in and out of focus

Mild and bitter from tuberculosis

 

Forgotten Man / Indifferent nation

Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station

Somebody's calling you again

The sky is falling

Jimmie's standing in the rain

 

Her soft breath was gentle on his neck

If he could choose the time to die

Then he would come and go like this

Underneath the painted sky

 

She woke up and called him "Charlie" by mistake

And then in shame began to cry

Tarnished silver band peels off a phrase

And then warms their hands around the brazier

 

Forgotten Man / Indifferent nation

Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station

Somebody's calling you again

It's finally dawning

Jimmie's standing in the rain

 

Brilliantine glistening

Your soft plaintive whistling

And your wan wandering smile

 

Died down at The Hippodrome

Now you're walking off to jeers, the lonely sound of jingling spurs,

the "toodle-oos" and "Oh, my dears" down at "The Argyle"

 

Vile vaudevillians applaud sobriety

There's no place for a half-cut cowboy in polite society

 

Forgotten Man / Indifferent nation

Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station

Somebody's calling you again

It's finally dawning

Jimmie's standing in the rain