Pete Atkin sings
Little Sammy Speedball

by Clive James and Pete Atkin,
from Secret Drinker

[Much more at www.peteatkin.com]
LYRIC:
At the age of seven years he could already boost a short
To score himself a bluebird or a pearl
He could smoke and chase the dragon, he could shoot
          and he could snort
And build a cocktail out of boy and girl

From any dealer's bundle he could sniff a single bag
And spot the blank, the ca-ca or the flea
The greatest living expert on the ways to mainline scag
He could tie up in the dark and not OD

          So they called him Little Sammy Speedball
          Because Little Sammy Speedball took it all

He ate cartwheels to go up and dropped sleepers to come down
A red and rose and pink and rainbow stash
He dynamited white stuff just to balance out the brown
And flashed on hash but never crashed on splash

Ripped on chalk and peaches he found time to load the Chief
And kissing big attained a state of grace
His panaddicted system was tuned high beyond belief
A miracle of forces poised in space

          So they called him Little Sammy Speedball
          Because Little Sammy Speedball took it all

But the day he turned eleven put the pin in the balloon
An aching tooth had nagged him half the night
He took a junior aspirin crushed with honey in a spoon
And exploded in a blaze of heat and light

In the ruins of his bathroom lay the candy-coloured pills
The universal user's bag of sweets
But nothing else remained except an echo in the hills
And the sound of tablets bouncing in the streets

          So they called him Little Sammy Speedball
          Because Little Sammy Speedball took it all