Ferry Cross the Mersey lyrics and meaning

[skeith]

Ok, I have liked this song for years and always wondered about the meaning.

It would seem that the singer prefers where he is (presumably Liverpool?) and is suggesting to the one to whom he's singing that you can go, but I will stay here. Is that all there is to it?

Was this some sort of saying or expression at the time?

And if you take the ferry ... you would be going where... to Liverpool or away from it. If away, is it just to some suburbs of Liverpool? (If so, big deal, that would be sort of like saying ferry cross the Hudson for New Yorkers)

The song seems to be loaded with sentiment and it would seem to mean something big... so I wonder if someone can provide some context.

Edited December 29, 2011 by skeith

[sonnymax]

This great song is Gerry Marsden's homage to his birthplace, Liverpool. It's a busy, yet friendly place - "the place I love. And here I'll stay". I don't see that he's speaking to any one person in particular. And given that he's asking that the "ferry cross the Mersey", I assume he wants it to take him to the place he loves. The song comes from a 1965 film bearing the same name. It stars Marsden and the Pacemakers and portrays the excitement surrounding the Liverpool music scene with the rise of the Merseybeat sound.

[BillF]

The lyrics seem to contain a contradiction - wanting to stay and yet taking a ferry somewhere. Well, the situation is, as skeith suggests, like "ferry cross the Hudson" for New Yorkers. Ferries ply all the time across the Mersey from Liverpool to Birkenhead, part of the same conurbation and about half a mile away. I can testify to the warmth and communal feeling of Liverpudlians. There isn't a hint there of the "English reserve" which I find in the south of England and, though a Mancunian, I'm first to admit that the social atmosphere is a good deal chillier in this city than in Liverpool.

[A Lark Ascending]

There isn't a hint there of the "English reserve" which I find in the south of England...

That's because Liverpudlians are Irish, not English.

[AllenLowe]

I thought they were extremely small people visited by Gulliver.

[JSngry]

There isn't a hint there of the "English reserve" which I find in the south of England...

That's because Liverpudlians are Irish, not English.

So, The Beatles were really leprechauns?

[Hardbopjazz]

I thought they were extremely small people visited by Gulliver.

That's funny shit.

[sonnymax]

The lyrics seem to contain a contradiction - wanting to stay and yet taking a ferry somewhere. Liverpool.

Where's the contradiction if he's heading home, as I suggested?

[skeith]

I take the song to suggest that the singer is telling another to go across the Mersey, but he is going to stay put. I suppose that could be one interpretation.

[A Lark Ascending]

I wouldn't read too much into it. Catching a ferry across the Mersey is hardly the same as popping down to Liverpool docks to take a boat to New York, More like catching a bus to get to work.

At the time it came out (1964) things Liverpudlian were incredibly fashionable in a Britain not just in the thrall to the Beatles but also to all things Northern and working class. Working the word 'Mersey' into a song was a way of getting a hit.

[BillF]

Ok, I have liked this song for years and always wondered about the meaning.

It would seem that the singer prefers where he is (presumably Liverpool?) and is suggesting to the one to whom he's singing that you can go, but I will stay here. Is that all there is to it?

Was this some sort of saying or expression at the time?

And if you take the ferry ... you would be going where... to Liverpool or away from it. If away, is it just to some suburbs of Liverpool? (If so, big deal, that would be sort of like saying ferry cross the Hudson for New Yorkers)

The song seems to be loaded with sentiment and it would seem to mean something big... so I wonder if someone can provide some context.

Here's some information:

http://www.merseyferries.co.uk/content/Commuters/CommuterTimetable.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersey_Ferry

[JSngry]

[A Lark Ascending]

North-east, not north-west. Where is your sense of geography?

[JSngry]

Geography? That's like, old rocks and stuff, right?

Is Brian Ferry not an old rock star? I believe he is!

Q.E.D.!

[Dave James]

If this helps, the music video that was made to accompany the song showed the band taking the ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool.

[A Lark Ascending]

Geography? That's like, old rocks and stuff, right?

Is Brian Ferry not an old rock star? I believe he is!

Q.E.D.!

You're thinking of geology.

[Dave James]

Geography? That's like, old rocks and stuff, right?

Is Brian Ferry not an old rock star? I believe he is!

Q.E.D.!

You're thinking of geology.

Right. The study and tracing of lines of descent or development.

[JSngry]

I thought that was arthurology.

Oh well, two languages separated by a common ocean. Whatcah' goona' do, eh, right?

[A Lark Ascending]

I thought that was arthurology.

Oh well, two languages separated by a common ocean. Whatcah' goona' do, eh, right?

Get the geography right, perhaps?

Nottinghamshire is east of the Atlantic. Texas is West.

[JSngry]

Texas is everywhere, not just West.

[Neal Pomea]

I thought they were extremely small people visited by Gulliver.

You're thinking of those fancy white Austrian horses they train to march funny.

[JSngry]

Get your taxonomy right!

[Dave James]

Get your taxonomy right!

What does the IRS have to do with this?

[JSngry]

That's the label that Sting was on, and I'm sure he was on a boat with Bryan Ferry at some point in his life.

His loss if not.

[A Lark Ascending]

They spend a lot of their youth in the north-east waiting for the boat to come in.