Streets of London (by Ralph Mc Tell)
             How to explain the song's popularity
             Ralph Mc Tell's song "Streets of London" is about the everyday poverty which we, the "healthy and wealthy" part of our society, don't seem to recognize. The song tells the story of an old, impecunious man who used to be a successful seaman, a hero. In the past, the old man was respected and admired by the society, but in the same way his medal ribbons fade, the society's memory of the former hero fades.
             Ralph Mc Tell is able to make us feel guilty and responsible when listening to his song as he sings about a man who was once a decent, hard working person like most of us are. We can see ourselves in the old man's wretched position and that makes us feel frightened and pensive.
             Most people think that poverty only exists in Third World Countries, where there is not enough to eat and the water is polluted but Ralph Mc Tell doesn't sing about the enormous poverty of millions of people in Africa or Asia, he sings about the (individual) poverty we can find in our neighbourhood and in our own family. He makes us aware of the seriousness of poverty and due to the fact that each one of us could end like the old man in the song, we suddenly worry about the poverty described by Ralph Mc Tell. The song blames us for ignoring the lonely and poverty- stricken persons who live in our city, village or vicinity ("let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London").
             An other reason for the song's immense popularity is, in my eyes, that Ralph Mc Tell uses many symbols in his song ("yesterday's papers telling yesterday's news", "looking at the world over the rim of his teacup"). Only by analysing the song very carefully, we can really understand what it tries to tell us. We realise that the persons mentioned in the song do not have any responsibility for thei...