As the song says, over 1500 people were killed when the Titanic went down, and many of those were poor immigrants who were locked below decks unable to escape. However, my lyrics are hopeful in the face of impossible odds – even if that was a forlorn hope for many. It seems to me this cry for a better future, for a chance to live even, is indelibly written in our souls – as Paul Simon once sang,

What is the point of this story
What information pertains
The thought that life could be better
Is woven indelibly
Into our hearts and our brains

‘Train In The Distance’ 1981

 

DON’T GO DOWN      

Don’t go down, don’t go down,

Don’t go down, down, down.

Don’t go down with the sinking ship,

Let her go – let her go.

 

The captain has his duty, the rich man has his gold,

But you don’t need to drown like a bilge rat in the hold.

Get up on deck and tell the crew by heck

You ain’t gonna die in the cold… down in the cold

 

Jump into a lifeboat, head out for the shore,

Let’s hope tomorrow is better than before.

JP Morgan’s in dismay – broke and busted on this day,

But you don’t need to die in the cold… down in the cold

 

From Greenland’s icy shoreline to the north Atlantic swell,

The berg that sank Titanic and sent them all to hell,

Lay waiting in the darkness and split the hull apart,

Like the cracking of a walnut or the breaking…

…of a young girl’s heart.

 

They said she was unsinkable – make full steam ahead,

Officer Murdoch ordered the warning bell.

But he was too late, and sealed Titanic’s fate,

Losing more than fifteen hundred souls… down in the cold.

 

Maurice Baker  © 2016