My Old Man

Album: Black and White: The Definitive Collection (1986)
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  • My old man was a good old man
    Skilled in the moulding trade
    In the stinking heat of the iron foundry
    My old man was made
    Down on his knees in the moulding sand
    He wore his trade like a company brand
    He was one of the cyclops' smoky band
    Yes, that was my old man

    My old man wasn't really old
    It's just that I was young
    And anybody over twelve years old
    Was halfway to the tomb
    He was loyal to his workmates all his life
    Gave his pay packet to his wife
    Had a few jars on a Saturday night
    Yes, that was my old man

    My old man was a union man
    Fought hard all his days
    He understood the system
    And was wise to the boss' ways
    He says, you want what's yours by right
    You have to struggle with all your might
    They'll rob you blind if you don't fight
    Yes, that was my old man

    My old man was a proud old man
    At home on the foundry floor
    Until the day they laid him off
    And showed him to the door
    They gave him his card, said, things are slack
    We've got a machine can learn the knack
    Of doing your job, so don't come back
    The end of my old man

    My old man he was fifty-one
    What was he to do?
    A craftsman moulder on the dole
    In nineteen thirty-two
    He felt he'd given all he could give
    So he did what thousands of others did
    Abandoned hope and the will to live
    They killed him, my old man

    My old man he is dead and gone
    Now I am your old man
    And my advice to you, my son
    Is to fight back while you can
    Watch out for the man with the silicon chip
    Hold on to your job with a good firm grip
    'Cause if you don't you'll have had your chips
    The same as my old man
    Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
    Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 3

  • Ckekp from Usa Wow! I’m suprised neither on of you spouted the tried and true “each the rich!”

    And to my friend from the UK, I’m sure you’d agree that Stalin took responsibility for his screwed up agricultural policies that produce a famine that wiped out hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Russians. But they were all kulaks, so the deserved it. Clear socialism and communism have lifted so many people out of poverty that it makes no sense to try to impose it on the world again. Right comrades?!!??!
  • DonLmao at the writer of this songfact trying to defend capitalists
  • Ben from UkMuch as I'd like to believe that the capitalists are in the same boat as the rest of us, that just simply isn't true. Capitalists do all they can to externalise the costs of their folly. When they make a mess, they make damn sure to make the poor pay for it, whether it be today, tomorrow, the economic crisis of 2008, or the Great Depression.
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