The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Now I'm a union man
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think, that the company stinks
Yes I'm a union man
When we meet in the local hall
I'll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout, it's "Out brothers, out!"
And the rise of the factory's fall
Oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
The union has made me wise
To the lies of the company spies
And I don't get fooled by the factory rules
'cause I always read between the lines
And I always get my way
If I strike for higher pay
When I show my card to the Scotland Yard
And this is what I say:
Oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
Before the union did appear
My life was half as clear
Now I've got the power to the working hour
And every other day of the year
So though I'm a working man
I can ruin the government's plan
And though I'm not hard, the sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman
Oh, oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think, that the company stinks
Yes I'm a union man
When we meet in the local hall
I'll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout, it's "Out brothers, out!"
And the rise of the factory's fall
Oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
The union has made me wise
To the lies of the company spies
And I don't get fooled by the factory rules
'cause I always read between the lines
And I always get my way
If I strike for higher pay
When I show my card to the Scotland Yard
And this is what I say:
Oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
Before the union did appear
My life was half as clear
Now I've got the power to the working hour
And every other day of the year
So though I'm a working man
I can ruin the government's plan
And though I'm not hard, the sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman
Oh, oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
Lyrics submitted by Kavanne
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Despite first glance, this is not a pro-union song, if you read between the lines. In the 70s the UK was rife with strikes. This was a topic of film and TV. In Carry On - At Your Convenience, the shop steward was perpetually calling his fellows out on strike for the most trivial reasons, no sugar for the tea etc. Monty Python\'s Flying Circus had the country devastated by the theatre critics strike. In Fawlty Towers - The Kipper and the Corpse. the Major reads in the newspaper about another car strike. Basil\'s comment was "if they don\'t like making cars, why don\'t they get a job designing cathedrals or composing violin concertos. The British Leyland concerto in four movements, all of them slow, with a four hour tea break in between".
Yeah, a massive fail! Who on earth would want to protect workers from the greed of capitalism?
If you know anything about Britain in the 70s you will know that Trade Unions were not protecting anyone from anything. They were exploiting ridiculous labour laws to hold the whole country hostage to the point where we didn't even have enough power so that everyone could have electricity. They drove the country to the point of bankruptcy! Your username indicates that maybe you think that kind of clusterfuck is actually a good thing, but for me if that is the enemy of capitalism then give me capitalism every day of the week.
@Rommie you're talking twoddle, mate, the oil crisis left us without electricity, and that was certainly nothing to do with the unions. The N.U.M. strike was called because British miners were being paid 8% less than their European counterparts and the government attempted to hide that. The country was driven to bankruptcy by the inadequacy and incompetence of governments of both red and blue stripes. Unions did what they always have done and what they were set up to do: protect their workers and fight for fair working conditions and wages. Clearly, even before Covid, neoliberalism and the society with diminished trade union power didn't do much to improve the British economy. Maybe you missed the ten years of austerity (which killed 130,000 Britons [United Nations]) and the financial crash, but the rest of us certainly didn't because we're stuck in the real world. Get your facts straight and get lost, Tory rich-kid.
A fantastic song about the pride British people once had in their mighty Trade Unions and the power ordinary workers exercised over their country and their rights in the workplace. Brings a tear to my eye to see our country today.
0/3 on Tory rich kid, but nice ad-hominem.
@Rommie If you want to see ad hominem, look no further than your esteemed Prime Minister, Maggie Thatcher, who launched the greatest personal attack against every last working man in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales in the history of western civilisation. Don't you dare try to play the personal attack card when communities still suffer because of arrogant and self-centred people like you who supported and voted for her.
I literally just said I wasn\'t a Tory
Despite first glance, this is not a pro-union song, if you read between the lines. In the 70s the UK was rife with strikes. This was a topic of film and TV. In Carry On - At Your Convenience, the shop steward was perpetually calling his fellows out on strike for the most trivial reasons, no sugar for the tea etc. Monty Python\'s Flying Circus had the country devastated by the theatre critics strike. In Fawlty Towers - The Kipper and the Corpse. the Major reads in the newspaper about another car strike. Basil\'s comment was "if they don\'t like making cars, why don\'t they get a job designing cathedrals or composing violin concertos. The British Leyland concerto in four movements, all of them slow, with a four hour tea break in between".
If anyone wants to know why Great Britain was such a massive fail in the 70s, just listen to this song.