Bob Dylan - writes Llanelli tribute song.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/scarlet-town-lyrics-bob-dylan.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdCMNFhkTQU

Great song actually

Of course - everyone needs to play tribute to the old steel town!

I love these lyrics - "
The streets have names that you can’t pronounce
Gold is down to a quarter of an ounce
The music starts and the people sway
Everybody says, “Are you going my way?"

Brilliant!

Smirnoff,
Yes good one. And references to booze, drugs, my fathers foe.. we could go on. There are couplets and verses which sadly could be relevant to any number of declining industrial towns.
But the title was the clincher for me. It has to be about LLanelli ? right ?
Anyway, a great (if slow dark song) from the great minstrel.

Hey we're not a declining industrial town, we're a thriving tourist location in the heart of the 'Welsh Riviera!'

I haven't heard the song yet (damn PCs in work are too slow for Youtube) but will check it out tonight - def it has to be about Llanelli, I mean Bob already showed his love for West Wales by calling himself Dylan after the great poet!

But the booze part is very apt for Llanelli - a town with more pubs and offlicences per capita head than anywhere else in the UK (probably why I developed a taste for vodka and bourbon whiskey...) apparently!

Smirnoff,
yes, you need to check the song when you get back home.
A great song in its own right. And the lyrics have general resonance for US rust belt decline. The title - well I couldn't resist the 'Llanelli' link .
I used to visit Merthyr in the 70's but I am hoplessly out of date myself on Llanelli. Stayed down Merthyr town in a pub, Crown I think, or with friends up at Gurnos.

Surprisingly seeing as I've lived in Rhondda I don't know Merthyr well at all - except for the jokes, that I can't resist taking part in of course!

I imagine it's changed a lot since the 70s and I think it's had a bit of money to do up some parts of the town recently.

LLanelli's changed hugely since I was a small kid in the 80s/early 90s - gone are the empty factories and one shopping street in the town centre - we now have quite a big shopping centre in the middle of town - the whole coastal part of the town has been redeveloped, there's a golf course (were there was barren land), a really nice park and lakes (one of which I think you can do water sports on) where Duports steel works were, one end of town is being totally redeveloped and has a TV studio, will have a cinema, the new Scarlets shop and public sector offices and cafes, and there's a cycle path that goes through the coastal section which goes all the way around Wales (or at least from Bridgend to Colwyn Bay).

Smirnoff, Glad the town seems to have recovered so well, post the de-industrialisation. If Glaws ever get over that way in one of the cup comps, I'll maybe pay a visit.