Saturday, July 14, 2007

Strikers Line

About the song

 

I wrote it in 1975.  I guess it has a Celtic sound because I was listening to a lot of Irish and Scottish muisc at the time. Ewan MacColl was an influence, for one.  His song "School Day's Over" appears below 

 

When I was just a lad and a little bitty lad

I heard the workers talking-o

About the coppers and the bosses and how they break the backs

Of all the working people o 

 

Three died in the mines and the waiting widows wept

And the miners rallied in the union hall

Then they marched up the cobblestone streets with the dead

And the black mariahs waiting round the bend

 

"Go back to work you bloody dogs

Or we will have your skins you know"

But the men cried "Never!" and the truncheon crack hard

On the skull of every worker

 

It's work for your supper and work for your bed

And work till your eyes are bloody red

Eight weary days of working and a rotten piece of bread

And you'll sure as hell be working till the day that you're dead  

 

 

School Day's Over by Ewan MacColl 

Schooldays over, come on then John,
Time you were getting your pitboots on
On with your sark and moleskin trousers
Time you were on your way
Time you were learning the pitman's job
And earning a pitman's pay

Come on then Jim, it's time to go
Time ye were working down below
Time to be handling a pick and shovel
You start at the pit today
Time you were learning the collier's job
And earning a collier's pay

Come on then, Dai, it's almost light
Time you were off to the anthracite
The morning mist is on the valley
Time you were on your way
Time you were learning the miner's job
And earning a miner's pay

 

 



Posted by paularenson to Mp3
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