Have you seen the old man In the closed-down market Kicking up the paper, with his worn out shoes? In his eyes you see no pride Hand held loosely at his side Yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news (Chorus) So, how can you tell me you're lonely, And say for you that the sun don't shine? Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London I'll show you something to make you change your mind Have you seen the old girl Who walks the streets of London Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags? She's no time for talking, She just keeps right on walking Carrying her home in two carrier bags. So, how can you tell me you're lonely, And say for you that the sun don't shine? Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London I'll show you something to make you change your mind In the all night cafe At a quarter past eleven, Same old man sitting there on his own Looking at the world Over the rim of his tea-cup, Each tea lasts an hour Then he wanders home alone So, how can you tell me you're lonely, And say for you that the sun don't shine? Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London I'll show you something to make you change your mind Have you seen the old man Outside the Seaman's Mission Memory fading with the medal ribbons that he wears In our winter city, The rain cries a little pity For one more forgotten hero And a world that doesn't care So, how can you tell me you're lonely, And say for you that the sun don't shine? Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London I'll show you something to make you change your mind
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The song was inspired by McTell's experiences busking and hitchhiking throughout Europe, especially in Paris. He witnessed the homeless lay on the hot air grates of the French capital’s metro to keep warm, placing their boots under their head so they wouldn’t be stolen as they slept.
The tune came first to McTell, and then the subject matter. “I tried to fit the people I’d seen on the Paris streets to this tune,” he recalls. McTell was originally going to call the song "Streets of Paris". However, once the song developed, McTell drew on his own experiences growing up in England and changed the location of the title.
The “closed down market” where the old man is nonchalantly “kicking up the papers/ with his worn-out shoes” to find leftover fruit from packed away stalls was actually a market in Croydon, London, near where McTell grew up.