From the recording The Whole Charade

Written By Paul Walker & Karen Pfeiffer plus an Unknown Writer who Paul encountered in the late 1970s. Unable to trace him Paul & Karen re-wrote the song retaining the chorus of our unknown friend. It's a story of Stoke on Trent as Paul recalls it in his youth.

Lyrics

Lift This Weight
Anonymous (Chorus)/Additional lyrics by Paul Walker & Karen Pfeiffer

Could've been a million years ago
When you look at what is left
When pots & crocs, coal & steel
Were words that made us best
Walk by any Longton Street
Or past the crumbling kilns
Listen for the voices
I swear they echo still

Chorus:
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me my friend
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me
Thanks Jack, it was breaking my back
‘Till you lift this weight with me
Now you’ve made it all so easy

People stood together
No care for who had what
Potters, miners, Shelton Bar lads
They worked for what they got
As a boy they scared me
With their blackened eyes & hands
How quickly would we join the queue
To do that work again

Chorus:
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me my friend
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me
Thanks Jack, it was breaking my back
‘Till you lift this weight with me
Now you’ve made it all so easy

Stoke on Trent’s a funny place
Never had no redwood pines
Just loads of dirty faces
Walking from the dirty mines
But was it all a better place
Were those our cherished times
I think maybe, I’d go back now
If just to hear those lines

Chorus:
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me my friend
Hey Jack won’t you lift this weight with me
Thanks Jack, it was breaking my back
‘Till you lift this weight with me