Listen to the track:
Whale on the Beach
The 1954 Wembury whale stranding
Verse 1
It was February, youth club night
Someone yelled, there’s a whale outside
We ran for the beach without thinking twice
Didn’t tell our mums, just chased the tide
Verse 2
First beach empty, gully bare
Past Langdon, torches in the air
Found it still by the rocks and spray
Dead but massive where it lay
Chorus
The whale on Wembury Beach
Thirty feet of salt and storm
It didn’t move, it didn’t breathe
But it held the dark like something warm
We climbed, we slipped, we tried to speak
It stayed with us all week
Verse 3
Someone brought a knife, took teeth
Science teacher said we should leave
But we held on to what we found
That thing was louder than any sound
Verse 4
The Army came, no plan to save
Too far gone to haul or grave
So they blew it up, spread it wide
And that smell stuck through the countryside
Final Chorus
The whale on Wembury Beach
Came in with the tide, stayed in our heads
Long after they cleaned the sand
Long after the headlines read
We saw it first by torchlight’s reach
The whale on Wembury Beach