Daddy, What Did You Do In The Strike?

Album: Daddy, What did you do in the strike? (1984)
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  • It was in the year of '84 shit really hit the fan
    When 'Mac the Knife' MacGregor, Maggie Thatcher's hatchet-man
    Said, Another twenty pits will have to close to meet the plan
    And we'll dump another twenty thousand miners

    Daddy were you with the first of the first
    Did you tell the NCB to do its worst
    Or did you save your lily liver
    Sell the union down the river
    A scab, a blackleg, one forever cursed

    When Arthur Scargill heard the news he cried, This Yankee slob
    Is a gift from Cowboy Reagan and he's here to steal our jobs
    Do an axe-job on the union for the crummy Thatcher mob
    But we'll show him what it means to be a miner

    Daddy did you man the picket-line
    Did you fight to save the future of the mines
    Or did you take the wrong direction
    Did you squeal for police protection
    Did you let 'em see your india-rubber spine

    Well the Yorkshire lads came out on strike and said, It's evident
    The only way to stop MacGregor and the government
    Is to bring the lads out everywhere from Scotland down to Kent
    And we'll show 'em what it means to be a miner

    Daddy what did you do in the strike
    Did you stand there with your mates and join the fight
    Or did you show a yellow belly
    Spill your guts out on the telly
    Did you let the bosses fill you full of shite

    Some didn't heed the strike call for guts and brains they lack
    They're the colour of a primrose though their hearts and legs are black
    And their noses are all brown with being up the rear of Mac
    They're just a bunch of dirty blackleg miners

    Daddy did you march at the head
    Did you stand there on the picket-line unfed
    Or did you sell your mates to have a
    Fortnight on the Costa Brava
    Did you choose a two-week holiday instead

    Well the battle it is joined at last the forces they are massed
    On their side the press the telly all the weapons of their class
    Plus MacGregor and his blacklegs but we'll never let 'em pass
    The NUM's the weapon of the miners

    Daddy what did you do in the strike
    Did you scab and let your workmates wage the fight
    How the neighbours stood and booed us
    Said we had the stink of Judas
    Daddy what did you do in the strike Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • London Celtic Punks from London, EnglandGod bless Ewan MacColl an inspiration to many and still inspiring people now. The only good scab is a dead one if you ask me...
    The Scab
    A Poem by: Jack London (1876-1916)
    After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab.

    A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

    When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.

    No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with. Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not.

    Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British army. The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife, his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled promise from his employer.

    Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country; a scab is a traitor to his God, his country, his family and his class.
  • Maggiethatcher from Sheffield, United KingdomBrilliant! I've compiled a list of songs featuring margaret Thatcher or the strike at http://www.maggiethatcher.com/buymusic.html and particularly like 'The Maggie Thatcher Experience' with 'The Lady's not for Burning (Piss anthem) - I've recreated the list here:
    Bernstein (f.k.a. Dan Bern) - Children of the Cold War
    Bérurier Noir - Et Hop
    Billy Bragg - Thatcherites
    Braintax - Decade on Panorama
    Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Evil
    Conflict - These Colours Don't Run
    Conflict - Neither Is This
    Conflict - To Whom It May Concern
    Corries - Who'll Take The Ball from Maggie Thatcher?
    Crass - Nineteen Eighty Bore
    Crass - Sucks
    David Diamond - Some Talk Of Ronald Reagan
    Deborah Holland - Pinochet and Margaret Thatcher
    Thomas Dolby - May The Cube Be With You
    Doug Anthony All Stars - If You're Happy 2
    Doug Anthony All Stars - The Sun
    Martin Carthy - Company Policy
    Elvis Costello - Tramp The Dirt Down
    Exploited - Don't Pay The Poll Tax
    Dick Gaughan - Ballad of '84 and others, indirectly
    Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death
    Hefner - The Day That Thatcher Dies
    Human League - The World Before Last
    Ewan MacColl - Daddy, What Did You Do In The Strike?
    Ewan MacColl - The Media and others, indirectly.
    The Maggie Thatcher Experience - Thatcher's death anthem
    The Maggie Thatcher Experience - The Lady's not for Burning (Piss anthem)
    Manic Street Preachers - If White America Told The Truth For One Day Its World Would Fall Apart
    Morrissey - Margaret On The Guillotine
    Aimee Mann - You're With Stupid Now
    Not Sensibles - I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher
    Pink Floyd - The Post War Dream
    Pink Floyd - Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
    Pink Floyd - The Fletcher Memorial Home
    Pink Floyd - Not Now John
    Renaud - Madame Thatcher
    Roger Waters - Four Minutes
    Roger Waters - The Story
    Roy Harper - Winds Of Change
    Sinéad O'Connor - Black Boys On Mopeds
    Space - No-One Understands
    Spailpin - The Maggie Thatcher Song
    Trust - Misere

    Games featuring Thatcher;
    Whack-a-miner (Ironic parody) from http://www.milksnatcher.com
    The lady's not for Burning from http://www.maggiethatcher.com/burning.html
    Milk Snatcher game from http://www.maggiethatcher.com/milk.html

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