Ralph McTell - Streets of London

Ralph McTell singing The Streets of London in the 70s

Ralph McTell in a recent interview about this song:

Ralph McTell's Streets Of London has topped a Time Out poll of the capital's 50 all-time favourite tracks, with The Kinks' Waterloo Sunset a close second.

But few know that McTell's poignant story of post-war poverty, drugs and love was first called The Streets Of Paris.

He explained: "When I was a busker in Paris in 1965 there were a lot of impoverished people sat over the hot-air gratings in the Metro and I formed this idea of writing a song about those people.

But then I thought, 'Wait a minute, these images are everywhere', so I wrote it as Streets Of London to a tune that I'd already composed."

You can read more here:

http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/2026.html