John, Elton - Grimsby Lyrics

Caribou horribly underrated my favorite

I was born and raised in Grimsby, and I can say this is the most ridiculous and embarrassing thing I ever heard Grimsby was, and is, an utter shitehole.

I think this is the last of the good Elton John LPs...."Ticking" is both disturbing and beautiful...This track is northern camp. Love it.

I noticed a picture of EJ was used in the movie ‘Grimsby’. Dunno whether it’s an easter egg or not, though. ‘Caribou’ is a good album either way.

As I lay dreaming on my bed
Across the great divide
I thought I heard the trawler boats
Returning on the tide

And in this vision of my home
The shingle beach did ring
I saw the lights along the pier
That made my senses sing

Oh oh Grimsby, a thousand delights
Couldn´t match the sweet sights
Of my Grimsby
Oh England you´re fair
But there´s none to compare with my Grimsby

Through nights of mad youth
I have loved every sluice in your harbour
And in your wild sands from boyhood to man
Strangers have found themselves fathers

Take me back you rustic town
I miss your magic charm
Just to smell your candy floss
Or drink in the Skinners Arms

No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty
Of your pies and peas
I want to ride your fairground
Take air along the quay

That witty Bernie Taupin, writing an ode to where he spent time in his youth. Obviously never considered for single release, but the band sure sounded like they had fun recording it.

R.I.P. Dee Murray...very underrated Bass Player

Apparently, producer Gus Dudgeon disliked this tune...It's an underrated gem IMHO

He was also displeased with how Elton looked on the cover. Not as imagined.

This is one of many album tracks I love by Elton John

I'm a Elton fan young guy

Caribou was the first EJ album I purchased. I still think its the best EJ album. Well polished -smooth. EJ was best with Nigel and Dee.

Errant trombone toot at 3:32.

As a resident I can safely say Grimsby is a shit hole

I was born in the 90s I like this classic hitsI

One of my favorites😎😎😎😎😎

Guitar synthesizer.

Bernie’s old stamping ground on a Saturday Night for a bit of fighting

As I lay dreaming in my bed
Across the great divide
I thought I heard the trawler boats
Returning on the tide
And in this vision of my home
The shingle beach did ring
I saw the lights along the pier
That made my senses sing

Oh oh Grimsby, a thousand delights
Couldn't match the sweet sights
Of my Grimsby
Oh England you're fair
But there's none to compare with my Grimsby
Through nights of mad youth
I have loved every sluice in your harbour
And in your wild sands from boyhood to man
Strangers have found themselves fathers

Take me back you rustic town
I miss your magic charm
Just to smell your candy floss
Or drink in the Skinners Arms
No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty
Of your pies and peas
I want to ride your fairground
Take air along the quay

Ever since...We've loved this song in Tucson!...really.

Grimsbe...Caribou?...sheesh!

Empty Sky Caribou Best Elton Period

remember this from the summer of 74?  loved it then and love it now!

the band were great. sacking them was the biggest mistake of Elton's life. Never the same after that.

Dee Murray on bass!!! Sick!! On ANYTHING he played on!! This is one of my favorites of him on his 61 Fender Jazz!!!!

Charles and Denise Moscatello he is so underrated it's unbelievable, may he rest in peace, what an amazing player!

One of my favourite Elton songs..tongue-in-cheek but beautifully written and sung

love the caribou album.."pinky" is an underated gem- for the lyrics in particular

+maxdingotm absolutely!

Wow yet another great Elton gem I had completely forgotten about, like the previous song "Pinky". I like the change when he sings "in nights of mad youth I have loved every sluice in your harbor"

that's harbour....written in English

I know that Bernie Taupin is from Lincolnshire, but I wonder if Reg has ever actually been to Grimsby? Maybe for a Watford away match in the 1970s I suppose!

+Portcullis He has, he answered that question in a 2013 interview for BBC radio 2.

Elton used to drink in a pub called the P and M before he became famous

Richard as a local boy is there a real pub called the Skinners Arms

No...certainly not in Grimsby...but bear in mind that Bernie was actually from Market Rasen....further south in Lincolnshire & wrote Saturday nights Alright for fighting about the Rasen & Caistor boys getting it on as he sat drinking in the Aston Arms pub, & the pub was included in the Famous Grouse top 100 pubs for that reason

My town, proud to be from Grimsby, love my home.

I’ve been having a real hard time but today is my son‘s 16th birthday he looks like Brian and some for he has a different now and he has my eyes definitely well but different personalities because Michael I mean Brian has not a violent bone in his body and my son is not violent but is he’s a sweetheart it was definitely a mama‘s boy the last couple years he hung out with his daddy his daddy tried to teach him to be that be an amendment being something that being a man is not being a man is been supportive wonderful loving kind and David was those things a lot of the time but he had another side of him but I know my son and I will not many people lose their father when they’re 14 and his siblings only his youngest sister is communicating with them and is aunt from his father side and uncle they sent them a card he’ll be happy to see in the morning because he probably thought nobody remembered it was his 16th birthday it’s shameful because his oldest son David‘s oldest son was left in charge of Michael‘s money and he’s the one who took every bit out of the safety deposit box he said he wouldn’t ask for the key when my sister was here probably because Missy would’ve known that I was should’ve given it to him I didn’t know I thought the bank documents and I didn’t even know there was any money in there but I feel like I’m grateful that there’s so many people have lives work things are so much worse my best friend my godfather I call him my godfather because I didn’t see my dad from the time I was 15 except for once when I went to your house well I only saw him once after that when I move to your house and I hitchhiked to Tampa to see him but he died 16 hours after mom I’m in 16 hours before mom and they lived in different cities as it was Pancrease -itis it was not done on purpose at first I thought maybe he did it on purpose and whatever I know he loves mom he always wanted her back but she just didn’t feel that Way towards him and that’s why I stayed with my husband regardless of I had enough money tonight stay after my parents died but Anna it it was extremely unpleasant like I’m not saying that I’m saying it’s dreamily before we had Michael he knew I told him I would leave him in a New York minute if he wasn’t kind to me and treated me right after I had Michael I was between a rock and a hard place because I did not trust him with my son alone and that’s a horrible feeling to have but I didn’t know that until after Michael was born I would I waited till I was 36 to have a baby because I wanted to have a baby with somebody I thought it would and he did love Michael no doubt about it he loved it Michael but and I have plenty of my own faults but this is the first time I’ve lived I’ve lived on my own but I’ve never been responsible for taking care of someone else and Michael is not like I was 16 I was living on my own at 16 and I already had a job for two years Michael is he won’t make a peanut butter sandwich and he doesn’t even want jelly on it so it’s like so easy that I make his lunch every morning and that’s no big deal it’s just the principle that at 16 or I am well and five Brian is making his own sandwich but yet he was going to a lot of other things so and that way I am grateful that my son I know my son can do it I have no doubt he just wants his mama to take care of them and I remember wanting a mom a stay at home mom so badly because the day my mom was off work and I came home and smell food cooking on the stove and remember it being one of the most happiest days of my lifeUnfortunately Cal passed away on the 13th the strangest thing was the night before and I had no idea that he was going to die I know he had to have dialysis started but I have known people had been on dialysis for years and I’ve called him my godfather but I lived with them from the time I was 19 and so I was 24 and then I came to visit him when I was 29 and lives with them till I was 31 but I always worked and I thought there was something wrong with me because he didn’t like me in the physical sense it was 20 years older than me and it wasn’t there was anything wrong with me he thought of me like a daughter who owns I was having problems and he would give me $100 to go see a psychiatrist and he took me out. And my husband and my son on Mother’s Day my husband never got me anything on Mother’s Day and never got me a Christmas present and a birthday present for Cal and Christmas would bring my husband present he always gave Michael $100 for thing for his birthday and for Christmas when Cal got it fixed income I gave him back $100 for his birthday he used to say he was born he in that other guy mean that Jesus cries because he was born on Christmas but I’ve called him every morning for the past 20 years sometimes I would get pissed because he made me c call him every morning and that was before Tat text and less my think he turned off his hearing aid when he did get a hearing aid as many people would now I have been alone for two years except for my son virtually I actually have conversations with myself in the grocery store ever what I’m going to buy because I do not want to bring anyone into my life and I just can’t imagine bringing anyone in my life right now unless there’s somebody I know from like like you or Missy somebody from that I know I can trust because mom and dad brought people in our lives within six months
That turned our lives upside down not just ours well there’s their lives upside down but by turn in their lives upside down it causes incredible pain and I don’t ever want my I’ve got two years told my son is 18 I refuse to do that and plus I have no interest in being with and hit me up and I’ve been asked out but I know they want one thing and that’s about the last thing in the world I want to do anyway I love you and I think of you a lot a lotBecause you’ve always been honest and you’ve always been real and you are practically my second mother for a few years when my mom wasn’t there and your mother was definitely the bomb I would have no hair on my head if it wasn’t for her well I practically don’t have much now I’m going bald on the top of my head and I haven’t bought that stuff that supposed to bring your hair back but anyway I love you

Rhonda Whaaaaaaat??

Rhonda Weaver-Knapp what are you talking about mate

Did Dee Murray play on this? Or was it Kenny? 

+bassmanjoe this was Dee as far as I know, Kenny played on rock of the and blue moves and some before and some after..

Definitely Dee Murray

If your lot are so Stupid this song is about Grimsby which once was the biggest Fish port in the world! Cleethorpes is famous as well as so if you idoits think what the point in this song go look in a history book k? Idiot's as well as it's and town not a city! 

@Louis Bradley So you are the clever one to correct all are you? Your written paragraph here is atrocious in respect of grammar / misuse or words.

I wonder now listening to "Grimsby" and knowing something about the song's history, if maybe it inspired (at least in part), the tongue-in-cheekiness of Blur's album, PARKLIFE. 

Another song I used to listen to many times from  'Caribou' on 8 track tape in High school. Brings back memories, Katella High school class of 76', Anaheim CA.- David Knittle, 7/5/14

this album is bernie taupin and elton john's grand opus!!  I  love this album from childhood into adulthood!

How dare you stag my town off guess you never been here

A Sample Of Lost Classic Rock always played @ thelegacy.shorturl.com
Search for The Legacy Nobex for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Blackberry.
 

This gem is very overlooked by most people. Although the city he sings about is garbage, the words and music captivate you like only Bernie and Elton could do. These were the days when all the tracks on albums were at the very least decent and some were much more. Love this song and wish Elton would do concerts with all this older stuff and treat us fans. Going November 12, 2013 in BOSTON!!!!

He has been making fine albums this millennium :)

I've been to Grimsby quite a few times and it's a total shit hole. Completely run down and left behind due to the lack of support from the government. Everything looks like it's about to fall down and it's not a pretty sight. Grimsby was named the worst place to live in the country if your a man, and I'm not surprised. Total dump.

He does, I saw him last year & he did a 90 minute set non stop of all his greatest ...kicking off with love lies bleeding & doing Crocodile rock as the encore

grimsby’s a town not a city. i live there and i love it. it is shunned by the government, yes, but i love it. who cares if it is run down? i’m proud to be from where i am. at least i’m not some stuck up prick

Grimsbys not garbage mate, it's a shell of its former self yes, who are we to blame for this? The EU, that's why we voted 72% in favour of leaving.

Not the greatest of pop fishing towns. That accolade goes to Fleetwood, of course. But Dwighty gives this one a good run.

Bernie wrote this song as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Port of Grimsby where he spent a lot of time with friends in his youth.....

Brilliant music!.

yes your right he didn't write the lyrics that's what makes it so much harder to make hits hits and more hits .... think about it .

I gained knowledge of Grimsby I heretofore did not possess

It looks like one person has actually been to Grimsby.

Do you really think that Elton John fans give a flying f*** that you despise his music.

SOOO UNDERATEDD!!!! someone bring rock and roll back pleaseeeeee

Nope. From here on it’s autotuned singers who all sound the same. XD

Love the songs, but always thought the album cover was rather odd and not that attractive.

What a genius!

Tow Of Power, a band from SF Bay area, played all the horns on this album.

Technically, he didn't write the lyrics, Bernie Taupin did. Just saying :)

It's actually not that bad a song, though--and I absolutely despise Elton John's music....

I live in Grimsby, too!

It's a fucking shithole.

Love this song! I found this : In Barry Toberman's biography of Elton, it is claimed that he prompted Bernie into writing "Grimsby" because Randy Newman had written a song about Cleveland. Taupin was born on a farm near Sleaford, which is about fifty miles from Grimsby. (thanks, Alexander - London, England)

i've loved this song my whole life but was surprised to read recently that the lyrics are rather sarcastic in nature. maybe i'd had that hunch before but elton's vocal delivery of those lyrics is so sincere.

never seen Reg at the Peabung

I'sn't a grimsby a little piss boat they drag alongaide a big boat in case it sinks?...wtf writes a song about that?
Indeed, a lost period for the Elster

My crappy step father only did one thing right. He bought and played all the Elton John records.

Caribou has almost the exact same feel and effect of Be Here Now the album Oasis released after (What's the Story) Morning Glory -- Yellow Brick Road was just a hard act to follow and it shows all over Caribou, which sounds like everything that didn't make the cut on the earlier masterpiece. "Grimsby" however might be the best song on the album aside from "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." Still pretty weak, though.

this has always been one of my favorites of Elton's

@RichXbox360 well i cant really say what it was like in the mid 90's as i was born in 97 but from what youve said i can guess i has changed alot because now...its rubbish and like i said its full of chavs :)

@michaelahl97 You are an idiot, I lived there during my student years in the early to mid 90s, I loved it.

lol @ michaelahl97, I always thought this song was a wee tad satirical? Cause I have heard from a few that Grimsby is a grungy crap town...however I'd prolly have a great time there if I ever went. This song makes me want to visit :) cheers!

seriously out of all the towns in the world he sang about grimsby...it is a shithole that is full of chavs.
i live there :)

I was obsessed with this song when I was 12.

Our daughter visited this great town yesterday to buy a tent. Last time I was there was 1975 Sunday night cold wet but nice. After 36 years she said the fish chips and peas are great price and taste are still incomparable. She loved it So thanks to GRIMSBY

This song makes me proud to have been born in Grimsby and I currently live in a village just outside of it. A heavily underated town. Just hope the football club picks up again back to former glory.

@JoeWillSkateForStuff It is now. What have you people done to it?!?!

Pretty sweet tune.

CRAZY...comparing this to the piano-and-vocal-only version from "Old Grey Whistle Test" in '74. It only shows how TIGHT the band was, and how superb Gus Dudgeon's production skills made this into something epic.

This reminds me of 1974 when i was 10 and the hot girl down the strret in those tight Ditto Jeans!!...

This is a GREATG song, I couldn't remember the name and am so glad I founf it here

I remember listening to this song and I've Seen The Saucers on Vinyl when I was younger. This brings back so many memories, and the best decades for music was the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

@jim102353 This whole album is underrated and overlooked. (in my opinion). Ticking is one of my favs too. Love to play and sing it.

@alcarr99 Yeah, i love Pinky too. So many Elton treasures that lots of people don't know: We All Fall in Love Sometimes, Curtains, High Flying Bird, Funeral for a Friend, Love lies Bleeding, Levon, Indian Sunset, Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, The Last Song, Original Sin, American Triangle, Porch Swing in Tupelo, Gone to Shiloh, Mandalay Again, Come Down in Time, Club at the End of the Street, I Feel like a Bullet, Tonight... well we all have our favourites but what an incredible catalogue!

Hearing the chords always makes me hear Crocodile rock.

One of the best songs on my FAVORITE EJ ALBUM! As a little kid, I listened to my mom's Caribou cassette, and that was how I was introduced to the music of Elton John. As a result, Caribou will forever hold a special place in my heart.

I used to have "Caribou" on 8-track when
I was in high school. "Pinky" and "Grimsby",
the second and third cuts from it, are back
to back excellent tunes. Elton's non hit
tunes from his albums are second to no one.

@RebelFounderOdogoo Bitter Fingers is also very underared and overlooked tune.

Lol - I'm from Grimsby and I've never heard this song until now. Crazy. Good though :o)

@greeniem you should be on stage, your hilarious

@hardcorecordock you mom gave me head :)

@greeniem what ya harping on about!? - it is named after my crap town

@hardcorecordock yeah that's cool hardcorecock

A song named after my gash town! - good bless Grimsby

I FREAKIN LOVE THIS SONG!

Very underated and overlooked tune.