Song Lyric Sunday throws up an interesting challenge this week: feature a song that references a nursery rhyme or a fairy tale.

My initial response to this was ‘Eh?’. Nothing at all came to mind. So, in time-honoured fashion, I eschewed the sheer effort of having to think for myself and instead put the question to DuckDuckGo.

There is, of course, a huge number of possibilities, although most of them were songs with which I was entirely unfamiliar, so choosing one of them seemed a bit like cheating. However, the exercise was worthwhile because it triggered something in the depths of my memory. Traffic, with a song and an eponymous film from 1968.

Turn around every way
Looking back another day
The race is on, I’m out to win
Before I start I must begin

Here we go round in circles to nowhere
Mulberry bush just won’t let me see
If I am lonely when I arrive there
Mulberry bush, will you shelter me when I am naked and cold?
Yet no one must see, oh they’re looking at me
When I’m straight I feel that my world is real

With people running round and round, bringing one another down
People running round and round, bringing one another down

Turn around every way
Looking back another day
The race is on, I’m out to win
Before I start I must begin

Here we go round, I’m looking for someone
Mulberry bush is calling to me
Red lights and green ones, I can’t be nervous
Mulberry bush, your bright eyes I see

Here we go round in circle to nowhere
Mulberry bush just won’t let me see
If I am lonely when I arrive there
Mulberry bush, will you shelter me?

Written by Jim Capaldi, Steve Wiwood and Chris Wood

Song Lyric Sunday 24 August 2025