Monklands Memories - Airdrie & Coatbridge areas

“Jeely Piece” Flats Go Bang

The skyscraper apartment blocks in Glasgow’s Castlemilk housing scheme that inspired the “ Jeely Piece” song, have been demolished. Those unloved houses were amongst the first of the high–rise flats to be built in the city and the inability of parents to throw down a “jeely Pieces” [a jam sandwich] to their children playing below prompted folk-singer Adam McNaughton to write the well-know song which described the “ skyscraper wean wastin’ awa” because “ ye cannae fling pieces oot a 20-story flat”

“Skyscraper Wean”

I’m a skyscraper wean, I live on the nineteenth flair,
But I’m no gaun oot to play any mair,
Since we moved to Castlemilk, I’m wastin’ away,
‘Cause I’m getting one less meal every day.

O ye cannae fling pieces oot a twenty-story flat,
Seven hundred hungry weans will testify to that,
If it’s butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan,
The odds against it reaching earth are ninety-nine to wan.

On the first day my maw flung oot a piece o’ Hovis broon.
It came skyting oot the winda and went up instead o’ doon,
But every twenty-seven hours it comes back in tae sight,
Cause my piece went in tae orbits and became a satellite.

On the second day my maw flung me a piece oot once again,
It went and hit the pilot in a fast, low-flying plane,
He scraped it off his goggles, shouting through the intercom:
“The Clydeside Reds have got me wi’ a breid and jeely bomb!”

On the third day my maw thought she would try another throw,
The Salvation Army band wis staunin’ doon below,
“ Onward Christian Soldiers” was the piece they should have played,
But the oompah-man was playing a piece-on-marmalade.

We’ve wrote away tae Oxfam to try and get some aid,
And a’ the weans in Castlemilk have formed a “Piece “ brigade,
We’re going to march to George’s Square demanding civil rights,
Like “Nae Mair Hooses Over Piece Flinging Height!’

©Adam McNaughton

Singer/songwriter Adam MacNaughtan, a product of the Scottish Folk Revival of the 60s, has been writing, collecting and singing songs for three decades and has become one of the best-loved Glasgow characters.
He is a member of the hugely popular Scots group Stramash.

Supplied by Tom Frew