I've Packed up my Bags

 

 

 

 

Chorus
I've packed up my bags, I must go,
Far away from the town of Glasgow,
I'm headed for Swindon or maybe for London,
In search of a living I'll go.

My name it is Patrick McPhee, and the Gallowgate folk all know me,
'Tis there I'd have lingered, but I was glue-fingered,
And landed up in Barlinnie.
The reason that I had to fall, I stole from a man they call Gall,
I thought it was queer that he had so much gear
While I hadn't any at all:

I went from Barlinnie today to the Labour Exchange right away,
I said to the clerk I was looking for work
With half decent hours and good pay.
Said he: 'You might find it quite hard,' and I saw what he wrote on my card,
'From that day to this'n' McPhee's been in prison'
And that simply meant I was barred:

A girl before I went inside, I'd promised to make her a bride,
But she wouJdn't wait at the Barlinnie gate
For that was so undignified.
So now I'm a poor man but free, though headed far away I must be,
Where I'll find a living, though there's no forgiving!
A man that's been In Barlinnie: