The Men They Couldn't Hang - Rain, Steam and Speed

promo video from the single release in 1989

Lyrics:

One man drills a powder hole,
the colour of a bruise
One man blows the bugle and another
one lights the fuse
Blow up! Pick and shovel it!
Carry the earth away
Brains and brawn with hammers
drawn blasting through the clay

Rain is the cold
Steam is the burn
Speed is the way the world turns round

Draughtsmen and surveyors
work at pegging out the shaft
Ten of us to breathe the dust,
ten to do the graft
Underneath the Pennine range
the bodies lie in racks
Forty miles of steel and tile
follow in their tracks

Some men build a monument
Some men build a tomb
Some men move the world around
To give them breathing room
And some men build a statue
Of Isambard Brunel
Some men carve a tunnel into hell

Soon they'll build a tunnel under England
through to France
Will it make the tide run quicker;
will the flow of trade advance?
Underneath the ocean there is limestone,
chalk and sand
But coming up through the virgin rock
will be the human hand

(straight out of Paul Simmonds' 'Bag of Songs')
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/a-bag-of-songs/645035?productTrackingCo...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Men
• They
• Couldn't
• Hang
• TMTCH
• folk-punk
• Rain
• Steam
• Speed

[amapolishplummer]

My friend's dad is in this band, he is called Stan.

Good song!

[KrilaSounds]

@amapolishplummer - that's Stefan Cush's son, then. :-)

His mum is an excellent musician too, so he gets it from both sides!

[Frenchguyal]

Omg!!! This is the best song EVAH!!! I just can't get enough of it!!! Btw, second line- what'd it say- 1 man drops a whatty-what? Oh well, basically, this is the best song of all time, and thank you so much for uploading it :-D

[KrilaSounds]

Head over to "more info" for the lyrics! :-)

[ramonthe3rd]

Irish? Not Irish? the music is pretty good indeed, so 5 stars

[KrilaSounds]

Thankyouverymuchindeed! :-)

[freethoughtmusic]

An army of guys built these railways across England's green and pleasant land and one bloody Beeching f**ked up most of it. Oh well, TMTCH are GREAT, they are one of the few real folk bands.

[lonesomeboatman1]

Mind watchin and seen them live feckin magic!!!!!!!!!!

[oneofmanyCushes]

Stefan is my 2nd cousin. i feelz special ;-)

[CrawdaddyJoe]

Yep, I'm stealin' this one.

[austinrees]

Steam-Punk?

[amapolishplummer]

@KrilaSounds Aaaa, ok.

No wonder he is a one man band....

[gaspode18]

@ramonthe3rd English. I think one of the band members is Scottish, too.