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Worker's Song Lyrics
Yeh, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
CHORUS:
We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
CHORUS (x3)
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
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I love this song, same with all their working class songs. My dad is in a union, and his company, Otis Elevator, gives this union a very hard time. Probably because we're in New York City. This stuff is all true. If my dad was a few years older, he'd be in 'Nam 1-2-3. He didn't go to college, straight from his HS to work.
i have mixed feeling about songs like this. a lot of this music glorifying the working class does is create more class stratification.
yeah, as if massive profits and killing us for the bottom line don't.
you cant shit on the working class for singing songs about themselves. This has been the way of things since the beggining. slaves used to sing songs to get through their forced labor. Thats the nature of humans to raise spirits
On another note, its weird listening to this song considering where the economy is these days
This song really hit me. I heard it just after my grandfather's funeral. If I'd heard it before I would have learned it and played it at the wake or something..
This song really hit me. I heard it just after my grandfather's funeral. If I'd heard it before I would have learned it and played it at the wake or something..
Great song about how alot of working people get screwed over just so the "Fat Cats" can make even more money and how they are the first to be sent to war. The whole CD is great!
i have mixed feeling about songs like this. a lot of this music glorifying the working class does is create more class stratification.
I think you're confused, it's the class stratification that inspires these songs. Comments like yours display the ignorance toward the existence of this gap between Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat, as if claiming it's something manufactured by pop culture and that ignoring it will simply make it disappear.
I think you're confused, it's the class stratification that inspires these songs. Comments like yours display the ignorance toward the existence of this gap between Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat, as if claiming it's something manufactured by pop culture and that ignoring it will simply make it disappear.
i love this song one of my fav DKM songs i didn't get to see them last yr in october but my buddys did and they all got laid and my friend decided to wear a kilt and you arn't suposed to wear underware under a kilt so some girls riped it off of him and he had to walk to his hotel in calgary in the freezing cold with no undies. To me this is about how you fight for your cause cause usually when you are the first person to stand up fro somethign you believe in you are bound to fail cause you are expecting to make to big of an impact.
I love this song... the lyrics are great and its obvious what it is about.
Fairly obvious meaning, and I saw them live supporting the Pogues in Brixton acadamy. This was the best song they did.