JACK COMMON’S ANTHEM
(Jez Lowe/Lowe Life Music)
When Jack Common came home, he had Byker Hill on his mind,
Freedom of the streets in his heart, an ampersand blowing behind.
His famous luck writ in blood and muck never turned like he’d hoped that it would,
But why should he lament in the present tense when the past was perfectly good.
CHORUS
He was looking for the true north, the true north,
He was swinging on a stone, when Jack Common came home.
He was looking for the true north, the true north,
Never more to roam, when Jack Common came home.
When Jack Common came home, the sun had gone down on the river,
The berths and docks were all bare, the children of steel gone forever.
And the coal black beasts from the sea-blown east were all washing away in the rain,
And the pits they knew and the skills they grew were all back in the dark from where they came.
When Jack Common came home, he ran with the throng of the people,
The market stalls were a city now, the football ground a cathedral,
And the outside world in a panic swirled about, counting their days in fear,
But me and Jack are just happy to be back, swirling with the folks around here