Name: Billy's Boots
Duration: P00H03M37S
Description: A song about my grandad, the only male presence during my upbringing which actually meant anything. Green fingered, grumpy, but kind with a mischeivous light in his eyes. I think I'm turning into him

Billy's Boots

from Downbeat Is The New Upbeat by Will Riding

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about

A song about my grandad, the only male presence during my upbringing which actually meant anything. Green fingered, grumpy, but kind with a mischeivous light in his eyes. I think I'm turning into him

lyrics

Billy's boots are covered in clay
He grunts like an ox while he's digging away
He'll kick them aside at the end of the day
When he comes back home
He shines them on Sunday every week without fail
This grumpy old man with the heart of a whale
Then it's off to the Saracen's for his cigarettes and his ale
Before staggering home

Billy's boots are falling away
As he sits in the greenhouse watching us play
The stories he tell us go on through the day
Til it's time to go home
Billy's boots will last until Spring
He has a few bob, but won't spend a thing
He's perfectly happy to tie them with string
From his drawer at home

He's swapped boots for slippers though he's hardly aware
Mowing the carpet with an overturned chair
Talking to Alice as if she was there
In her parlour back home
No one was there to witness the fall
In a room by the lake at Wrightington Hall
I like to believe he was heeding the call
When Alice called him home

credits

from Downbeat Is The New Upbeat, released April 8, 2023

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about

Will Riding Chester

A Lancashire born, Chester based singer-songwriter with a deft and playful turn of phrase and acoustic - folk sensibilities inspired by, amongst other things, 70’s Children’s TV.

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