Originally written, March, 13th, 2020.
When I first started learning to play the guitar, I bought the instructional book The Complete Guitar Player, Book 4. According to the book, I was supposed to be a fairly accomplished player after working my way through it. Well, I can’t say the book lived up to that promise; I was still a very stiff and clumsy player, even after laboring through all the songs in it. One of those songs was “Streets of London” by Ralph McTell. Many years later, when some colleagues and I were asked to prepare a performance for the staff Christmas party, I remembered this excellent song. It fit the poem Tindátarnir (”The Tin Soldiers”) by Steinn Steinarr perfectly. We decided to perform the poem accompanied by the music of the song. I wrote a simple arrangement, and you are welcome to download it if you would like to play it.
McTell wrote the song in 1967 and intended to include it on his first album, Eight Frames a Second, but decided against it because of the song’s depressing lyrics. The first recording dates back to 1969, when McTell recorded it for his second album, Spiral Staircase. In 1970, the song was released as a single and became immensely popular. For a period, it was selling over 90,000 copies a day. Over 200 artists have covered the song, including artists such as Bert Jansch, Sinéad O’Connor, Cliff Richard, and Roger Whittaker. Fifty years after he wrote the song, McTell recorded it again with Annie Lennox and the Crisis Choir. You can listen to that version here.
In the lyrics, McTell paints pictures of the lives of the homeless on the streets of London. These images were likely formed in his mind while he was busking across Europe. Interestingly, the lyrics were originally meant to be about the street people of Paris, as McTell had spent a lot of time playing there. When he discovered that a song called “The Poor People of Paris” already existed, he adapted the lyrics to London. Of course, the lyrics apply just as well to life on the streets of that city.
