When we were kids we used to climb over the back wall 
into old Dan's scrap yard, then into the snooker hall 
where most of us kids were barred. And into the Roxy 
and the Stella where film stars starred. That's were me 
and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rodgers got drunk, and 
jarred we might have been the saviours of men, the 
captured captain in the devil's dealing den, and we 
might have been the magic politician in some kind of 
tricky position, but like an old old master musician we 
kept on wishing, we were headed for the number one hit 
country again.

There's an old photograph of Dan I wish you could've 
seen, of him and the boys, poised, standing in St. 
Stephen's Green. Y'see they were part of the great 
freedom dream, but they were caught and detained and 
are still locked inside the frame of the photograph. 
And he might have been, the clever con, the good 
Samaritan, the Rascal___ man, and he might have been 
the loaded gun, the charlatan of the tap dancing fan, 
but like an old old pioneer from outer Afghanistan he's 
headed for the number one hit country again.

Old Dan the Raincoat hums the very special notes of his 
long lost favourite melody. It reminds him of a love 
affair when he was young and did not care. And the 
parting, so soft so sadly that he might have been the 
laughing cavalero, the wise old commenchero, the 
desperado, the gigolo from Glasgow, the good looking 
Rudolph Valentino, but like an old old hunter in search 
of the female buffalo, he's headed for the number one 
hit country again.

And it's true, true blue, Irish blue, and it's true, 
and sometimes it reminds me of you.

Cos up til now my youthful age was a useless wage, a 
torn out page, a worn out gauge, a dirty shade, a big 
charade, a has been made. And honesty was his only 
excuse. I took your love and I used it, and honesty was 
his only excuse.