The Bright-Bluey Purple Canal
A fun anti-pollution song about a rather unsavoury canal and the effects it has on a young lad who falls into it.
A bright light in these dark times
The Magic Ox Band were a spin off of the Magic Ox Theatre Group - a zany bunch of performers who used to do wild things at the old Albion Fayres.
Although the Band split up long ago, I feel the songs we did back then still deserve a listening today. Folk never goes out of fashion - it just matures nicely :-)
Story behind the song
I wanted a light hearted song with a message to lighten up our set. This song always went down well live.
Lyrics
The Bright Bluey-Purple Canal
Out our back there’s a sign in red, warning all the kids to stay away,
From the crumbling banks and the old lock gates,
That hold in the inland waterway.
‘Course it drew us kids like honey would a bear,
There was hardly a minute that we wouldn’t spend there,
But nobody would jump, not even for a dare
Into the bright-bluey purple canal.
Mum said she swam in it when she were girl
Dad said it once were filled with fish,
But since factory were built up on Derby road,
The smell of canal makes Mum go feverish.
One day our Benny did a thing that were rash,
Along canal bank on his skateboard he dashed,
Suddenly he tripped and we heard a great splash
Come from the bright-bluey purple canal.
CHORUS
Now Benny glows green in the middle of the night,
Susan says he’s better than her old night light,
But he’s given Mum and Dad such a terrible fright,
Since he fell into the bright-bluey purple canal.
He came to the surface with a splutter and a cough,
He did a doggy paddle to the side,
He asked us to help him get out of the wet,
And get in front of fire before he died.
Well we all stood still, didn’t know what to do,
For Benny’s face were dyed a sort of purply blue.
“You’d better get yourself out”, says our little Sue.
“From the bright-bluey purple canal”
CHORUS
Everything went funny when Benny came in,
Sparks flew from the colour TV.
The tumble drier gave a splutter and a cough,
And started playing Radio Three.
The alarm went off on Mum’s digital clock,
Her sponge, in the oven, went as solid as a rock.
Dad said “We’d better get him down to the Doc”
And cursed the bright-bluey purple canal.
CHORUS
Oh Doctor says Benny is as right as rain,
Another from the factory guaranteed
“Ten thousand pounds, should the lad take ill!”
To that dad readily agreed.
Benny stayed off school till his colour had gone,
But at night, like the stars, he faintly shone,
Twinkling away, blinking off and on,
Like the bright-bluey purple canal.
CHORUS
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