Worker's Song

Written by Ed Pickford, performed first by Dick Gaughan.

This song is the fourth track on their 2022 album Smoke & Oakum.

Lyrics
These lyrics are based on the version performed by the Longest Johns in their Livestreams, the original lyrics can be found below. Come on all you workers Who toil night and day By hand and by brain To earn your pay Who for centuries all past For no more than your bread Have bled for your countries And counted your dead {Chorus} We're the the first ones to starve We're the first ones to die the first ones in line For that “pie in the sky” And we're always the last When the cream is shared out For the worker is working When the fat cat's about 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 To slide-rule and stopwatch Our pride they have robbed. {Chorus} 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} And all of these things The worker has done From tilling the field To carrying the gun We've been yoked to the plough Since time first began And always expected to carry the can