Southampton Doc

Lyrics:

They disembarked in 45
And no-one spoke and no-one smiled
There were to many spaces in the line.
Gathered at the cenotaph
All agreed with the hand on heart
To sheath the sacrificial Knifes.
But now
She stands upon Southampton dock
With her handkerchief
And her summer frock clings
To her wet body in the rain.
In quiet desperation knuckles
White upon the slippery reins
She bravely waves the boys Goodbye again.

And still the dark stain spreads between
His shoulder blades.
A mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves.
And when the fight was over
We spent what they had made.
But in the bottom of our hearts
We felt the final cut.

"Southampton Dock" is a song from Pink Floyd's twelfth studio album, The Final Cut (1983). During the Second World War, many soldiers departed from Southampton to fight against the Germans. In the early 1980s, Southampton was again used as a departure base, this time for the Falklands War. The song describes a woman who "bravely waves" the soldiers "Goodbye again".

The song includes a snippet of the theme from the track "It's Never Too Late", a song originally written and recorded for The Wall (1979) but was cut before the final band production demo of 12 August 1979. "It's Never Too Late" was later reworked and the melody was incorporated into the second section of "Southampton Dock".

Roger Waters repeatedly performed the song on his solo tours; a live recording (prefaced by "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert", another song from The Final Cut) appears on his album In the Flesh – Live (2000).

Critical reception

In a review for The Final Cut, Patrick Schabe of PopMatters described "Southampton Dock" as an example of where the album works best, and described the song's imagery as "subtle, poetic, and effective."