The Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester Speaking Machine

Depending on where I am and with whom I'm seen
you'll be treated to a rendition from the Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester speaking machine.
These cities, they are majestic, these cities have left their mark
I like to walk their lanes and streets especially after dark.
A Flaneur, a Psychogeographer of sorts, I gets my bearings dragging sticks along railings
Abandoned churches, buried orange boxes, gargoyles, old signs are my fixes.
Docks & Industry inspire history
The twang and the arc are there, Irish in all three places
They say that the Cymry are the Gwyddelod who could not swim
We have a reputation outside these places of being rather puritan, of being rather sour
The exhibit to us in the Museum of Liverpool is really rather dour.
It's as if laughter and happiness were a crime
you had to break out of it or you'd end up doing time
The oppression of monogamy and marriage
keeps the men from turning savage
The Irish and Scots can break free for the craic
but it's the guilt with the Welsh
It's the Guilt that holds us back.