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about

Written By Ewan MacColl

lyrics

If there’s anyone there has a moment to spare and can give undivided attention,
I’d be grateful if you’d give a minute or two and consider some points I would mention:
There are slanderous tongues ever ready to wrong and murder the fine reputation
Of the lads with big feet who by pounding the beat are protecting the peace of the nation.

There are shortsighted folks who insist that these blokes are just uniformed masters of thuggery;
There can be no dispute, if they didn’t put the boot in the country would all go to buggery.
So try and keep calm when they’re twisting your arm or planting a fist in your gob;
When they’re giving you hell in a cold prison cell, they’re only just doing their job.

When Hitler and Co. were running the show, assisted by Germany’s coppers,
If a nose was too big or a mind was too active, its owner was sure of the chopper.
Socialists, Communists, Jews and trades-unionists landed up dead or in quod,
And the police were in there, of course, doing their share - ah, but they were just doing their job.

Il Duce, the bully, and Franco, his cully, both loaded their countries with chains;
And in the front ranks of these two mountebanks were the police of both Italy and Spain.
In South Africa, El Salvador, Guatemala, where they call working people ’the mob’,
The screams and the yells from the punishment cells show the police are just doing their job.

If you’re black or just brown, if you’re jobless and down, if you speak for a world which is saner,
If you stand up and fight for what’s yours by right, if you’re an anti-nuclear campaigner:
Remember the chap in the comical hat is one of humanity’s crosses -
Wherever there’s trouble, whatever the struggle, he’ll be on the side of the bosses.

credits

from Daddy, What Did You Do In The Strike?, released July 14, 1984
Ewan MacColl - vocals
Peggy Seeger - banjo, concerina

Produced by Calum MacColl
Recorded by Nick Godwin
Recorded at Parrot Studios, Bromley

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all rights reserved

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Ewan MacColl London, UK

This site is maintained by the MacColl family, aiming to make Ewan's catalogue available to download.
Ewan MacColl is known to most as a songwriter and singer, but he was also of significant influence in the worlds of theatre and radio broadcasting. His art reached huge numbers through the folk clubs, greater numbers through his recordings and untold millions through the radio. ... more

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