Odd Songs that mean the world and yet... #1

Avenues and Alleyways

"Avenues and Alleyways" is a 1972 single recorded by Tony Christie as the theme song for the television series The Protectors. It was written and produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who were also responsible for Christie's "Las Vegas" and "I Did What I Did For Maria".

Following the chart-topping success of the re-release of "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" in 2005, this song was also re-released and peaked at #26 on the UK Singles Chart. On its original release, it had only reached #37.

It is included in the soundtrack of the 2000 film Love, Honour and Obey, starring Ray Winstone and Jude Law and that is where it first really seeped into my soul. A disarming melody combined with almost oddly poetic lyrics = my no.1 Karaoke tune, all thanks to Ray of course - Geezer!


Sleep like a baby,
my little lady,
Dream till the sunrise
creeps into your eyes
Dream till the sunrise
Turns on the day.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Able and his brother, fighting one another
in and out of every dive
The Avenues and Alleyways
where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle
see the rough and tumble
Listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later
in the morning paper
Read about the way he died.

Wake up my pretty
Go to the city
Stay through the daytime
safe in the sunshine
stay till the daytime
turns into night.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
Where a mans gotta work out which side he's on
any way he chooses
chances are he loses
no one gets to live too long
the avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy
everybody's wheeling
everybody's steeling
all the low are living high
Every city's got em
can we ever stop em
some of us are gonna try.

Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tony_christie/#share