When I was a farm boy Working in snow Putting up fences In shadow of skiddaw It was cold in the morning And my hands couldn't feel But the hammers keep raining down On wet posts of steal And the sky made me frightened With shape and with sound Configuration To menace the ground But I found in my heart Such peace and respite From the nightmare of being young In a cold caravan As I lay in the dark The silence was better Than any song ever sung But the weather was changing Sweet spring in the air I left the farmhouse On a song and a prayer And I came to your city And the trash they call fame Where the hammers keep raining down As the fence in your name But whenever I ride north And I look from the train I can still see the farm boy Alone in the rain But I found in my heart Such peace and respite From the nightmare of being young In a cold caravan As I lay in the dark The silence was better Than any song ever sung But whenever I ride north And I look from the train I can still see the farm b