Dark Side of Newtown - Backsliders

Dark Side of Newtown Lyrics

Piggy Roy was a sugar trader, living on the brink
Couldn't make enough of it, dealing on King street
It was a hard hard time, near the store that named a town
It was a hard hard time, on the dark side of Newtown
On the dark side of Newtown
Jessie she married Fred in April across from Newtown station
They took the horse-drawn tram right up to the celebration
Together nearly 40 years when Fred he departed
Jessie dressed in widow's weeds round Newtown thereafter
It was a hard hard time, near the store that named a town
It was a hard hard time, on the bad side of Newtown
On the bad side of Newtown
Tommy died in the infirmary, he was buried by a tree
Near the track of the Eora, in a grave that can't be seen
There's paupers in a graveyard, on the city surround
You know poverty is spreading, there's an epidemic in Newtown
Chop a load 'baker's wood', with a felling axe,
load it on a donkey dray, with a pile of knickknacks

Make a pound note bet at a dishlicker meet
Watch the coat-tugger lose if its a dead-heat
Chorus
It was a hard hard time, near the store that named a town
It was a hard hard time, on the bad side of Newtown
On the bad side of Newtown
On the bad side of Newtown