Yeah

He was the most handsome in a class of 22And he knew it early on, so his confidence kept growing

By 13, he had been with every girl deemed worth it

To be within the village, two years either side of his birthday

He played football, boy, could he play

He played every single day and he still does

A scout from Crewe Alexander came to watch him once

And they said that they were gonna be in touch

He was the captain of the team without ever asking to be

And without ever being told

That counts for a lot, still, believe it or not

Lo and behold, everyone fell in line

Behind the hair on his legs and hair on his lip

He was the-

He could smoke ten a day and still run faster

Than that whippet that could lap the racetrack rabbit

He could dabble in the snow, rubbing shoulders with the rabble

And still never ever touch upon a habit, at

Age 16, he made his choice to stay

And got a job selling houses in the village

Which by now had become such a desirable place to settle down

It was classed not as a village, but instead as a small town

(On the sunny, sunny side of the borough)

(You get two brown bins)

Fortunately, despite the influx of newcomers including for the first time

A genuine authentic Italian restaurant

Run by a family of fantastic old school Neapolitans

He was still the best at football and the most handsome man

Taking solace in that fact, as his little world continued

To expand, woo

By the time he was 20

He′d now been with all the girls deemed worth it in the village

Five years either side of his birthday

But it was time to settle down and no kiss had ever felt so electric

As the first, he'd ever felt all those years ago

Though, she′d never strayed far, hemmed in by his shadow

The torches lining the path of her own dreams

Had been growing dimmer by the day and so

Faster than a dying star, she cashed in her chips and checked out

Settled for him and subsequently threw all her own ambitions away

A promotion followed, a mortgage, a marriage

A dog and children, a loft conversion

A dead dog, and a second home on the Costa del Sol

In the hopes of stoking the coals of two long lost souls

Which comes first, counselling or keys in the bowl?

Put his own mother in a home

Got made redundant twice, never once was he on the dole

A light head, black spots on his vision, room spinning

Clutching the curtain, waving from the window, they thought he was grinning

He was grimacing, begging them to notice him, twitching, notice no one is helping him

The grandkids waving through the rear windshield

As the big electric gate draws a line in between them

A fine, fine line between benign and malignant

So get yourself checked, book yourself an appointment

So get yourself checked, book yourself an appointment

So get yourself checked, book yourself an appointment

So get yourself checked, book yourself

The whole village and most of the town came out to mourn his end

A full house, he would've been so proud

Knowing that no one said a bad word about him aloud

He wasn't perfect, but he was my friend

He wasn′t perfect, but he was one of us

He was one of us

A plaque bears his full name on a bench by the water′s edge

The dates he came and went

And a quote about life and death from a song he'd never heard

′Cause he wasn't too fond of long songs with lots of words

If I were him, I′d have never left the village either

But I did, and I know full well

That there are more handsome men

And better footballers out there in Greater Manchester

They would've cut him down to size if they could′ve

But what good would that do?

He bloomed and he grew and grew, and still, he was doomed

Same as me, same as you

Same as everyone I ever knew

You, sometimes still, I think about you

Out there, somewhere, floating in the ether

Born dyed in the wool, never knowing of a belly half full

So many of us are just crabs in a barrel

With no feasible means to escape the inevitable cull

There are those that grow thick skins quick for the sake of their sins

And the savvy folk that just keep their mouths shut and take it all on the chin

We collide with each other, we submit, we bare our teeth

Catch fish using giant metal ships and scream with laughter

At 4 a.m staggering home down moonlit country lanes

We cry because children are dying across the sea

And there is nothing we can do about it

Whilst we benefit from the bombs dropped which we had no part in building

We are sorry, truly we are sorry, we are just trying to get by too