Leon Rosselson 1972
Written for E. D. Berman’s successful Save Piccadilly campaign which also employed street theater to fight high-rise development proposals to make the “heart of London” more respectable. “I don’t remember the details but in essence it meant putting people underground to make room for more traffic. The plan was shelved and Piccadilly and Eros, in all their seediness, remain as a disreputable meeting place for lonely souls and lost tourists. The Save Piccadilly campaign asked me to write a ‘protest’ song. I wrote two. This one with its banner-waving singalong refrain, ‘That’s not the way it’s got to be’ and “The Man Who Puffs The Big Cigar’.”
Roy Bailey & Leon Rosselson: Plan (That’s Not the Way It’s Got to Be)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xjWudLzqbk
Piccadilly’s just a slum where the slugs and weirdies come Knock it down and clean it up and watch the towers rise Make it look respectable, everything identical Trees will be permitted of the regulation size – But where have all the people gone? The concrete towers in spring look sad. Why does the wind blow hard as stone? Why is this place so cold and drab? Chorus: That’s not the way it’s got to be, people before property We want a meeting place and not a traffic jam Let Eros speak for all of us, London’s streets belong to us No to their profits and their Piccadilly plan Concrete is very neat, keep the people off the streets Shove them down in tunnels where they won’t get in the way Hotels and offices, valuable properties What a lot of money we’ll be making every day – But where have all the people gone? The concrete towers in spring look sad. Why does the wind blow hard as stone? Why is this place so cold and drab? Road space is what we need, give the traffic room to breathe More cars are expected so provisions must be made What to do with Eros, Piccadilly’s glamour boy? Corner him and pen him in and teach him to behave. – But where have all the people gone? The concrete towers in spring look sad. Why does the wind blow hard as stone? Why is this place so cold and drab?