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Jack the Lad

[ Roud - ; Mudcat 167260 ; John Pole]

John Pole wrote Jack the Lad, based on the death of a South London teenager in the 1960s. It was published in New City Songster vol. 3, 1970.

Frankie Armstrong sang Jack the Lad in 1975 on her Topic album Songs and Ballads. A.L. Lloyd noted:

The song was made by a school teacher, John Pole, and its words are based on the life and death of a South London schoolboy. Frankie Armstrong, who has worked among drug-users for a good while, was immediately struck by the song when she first heard Pole sing it, and she has made it into something of her own. She says: “Judging from the number of people who come up and remark on it after a performance, it has affected and moved a great many people.”

Lyrics

Frankie Armstrong sings Jack the Lad

Where’s Jack the Lad then? Snuffed it ain’t he?
His old lady just found him dead
Cold as the pavement and smelling sour
So much methadone, so much methadone
So much methadone inside his head

There’s loads o’ methadone in his cough mixture see?
The empty bottle lies on the floor
It wasn’t for a cough ’cause he was fighting fit
He’s never had no drugs, never had no drugs
He’s never had no drugs at all before

Now Jack the Lad was a bit of a tearaway
He done approved school for thieving money
But he died safe at home next door to his old dear
She loved him all along, loved him all along
She loved him all along now ain’t that funny?

Jack and his mates went up West one Saturday
Wi’ bent prescriptions they bought the stuff
If you can drink it the lot the bottleful
You’ll blow your mimd all right, blow your mind all right
You’ll blow your mind all right that’s sure enough

So Jack the Lad he bought some med’cine too
Like Mike and Gray and Len they knew the scene
Just for a laugh like and he could do wi’ some
What a load o’ laughs and that, load o’ laughs and that
What a load o’ laughs and that his life had been!

He took the mixture home and lay down on the bed
He shook the bottle and swigged it all
He twitched and shivered and went out like a light
His mind went deaf and blind, mind went deaf and blind
His mind went deaf and blind behind a wall

He lay unconscious dead to the world like
Up come his dinner and all his tea
Lie in his gullet and slowly choked him
He never moved a muscle, never moved a muscle
He never moved a muscle to spew it free

It wasn’t methadone killed Jack the Lad you know
Just the obstruction that’s made him choke
It’s not a hard drug like proper heroin
It was just accident, was just accident
It was just accident he died, poor bloke

(repeat first verse)