Dagenham Dave - The Stranglers

Dave was from out of town

Manchester’s likely too

Had read De Sade to Marx

More read than me and you

Scaffolding pays good bread

It pays for drugs and kicks

Dave only had one love

Had no real need for chicks

Dave was so far ahead

But now he’s dead

I’m not going to cry

I bet he hit that water high

I guess he lost control

And welcomed in the night

It was too much for him

What were his thoughts that night?

The River Thames is cold

It keeps on flowing on But it left Dave alone

It just kept flowing on There’s city sickness here

But now he’s dead

Late night a street in the west of the city

There was a place there where he lost himself

Strange feelings did he feel there

Strange people did he meet there

Angry sounds did he hear there

Like the howling of bulls