Never Any Good Songtext
von Martin Simpson

You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Not hard enough for the hard
You'd rather be riding your horse
Or going fishing with your split cane rod

You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job

When your grammar school days were over
It was 1917
And you did the right and proper thing
You were just eighteen
You were never mentioned in dispatches
You never mentioned what you did or saw
You were just another keen young man
In the mud and the stink of war


You were never any good with money
You couldn't even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Not hard enough for the hard
You'd rather be singing the Pirate King
Or fishing with your split cane rod
You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job

You came home from the Great War
With the pips of a captain′s rank
A German officer's Luger
And no money in the bank
Your family sent you down the coal mine
To learn to be captain there
But you didn′t stand it very long
You needed the light and the air

Oh, you were never any good with money
You couldn't even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Not hard enough for the hard
You′d rather be watching the fullness fly
Or fishing with your split cane rod
You were never any good with money
You couldn't even hold a job


When the second war came along
You knew what should be done
You would re-enlist to teach young men
The booby trap and the gun
And they sent you home to Yorkshire
With a crew and a Lewis gun
So you could save your seaside town
From the bombers of the Hun

Oh, you were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Not hard enough for the hard
You'd rather be finding the nightjar's nest
Or fishing with your split cane rod
You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job

And when my mother came to your door
With a baby in her arms
And her big-haired boy just nine years old
Trying to keep her from harm
If you′d have been a practical man
You would have been forewarned
You would have seen that it never could work
And I would have never been born

There's no proper work in your seaside town
So you come here looking for a job
You were a storeman at the power station
Just before I came along
Nobody talked about how you quit
But I know that′s what you did
My mother said you were a selfish man
And I was your selfish kid

You were never any good with money
You couldn't even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Not hard enough for the hard
And your Norton-Nilsen gone
Along with your split cane rod
You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job

You showed me Eyebright and Nedro
Speedwell and Traveller's Joy
You showed me how to use my eyes
When I was just a boy
And you taught me how to love a song
And all you knew of nature′s ways
The greatest gifts I've ever known
And I use them every day

Oh, you were never any good with money
You couldn't even hold a job
Not steady enough for the office
Maybe not hard enough for the hard
You′d rather be riding your horse
Going fishing with your split cane rod

You were never any good with money
You couldn′t even hold a job