Chumbawamba Jukebox

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Poverty Knock
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "English Rebel Songs 1381-1914," © 2003 except 'Coal Not Dole BMG/Copyright Control, © Mutt Records Ltd 2003

[Chorus
'Poverty poverty knock, ' my loom is a saying all day
Poverty poverty knock, gaffer's too skinny to pay
Poverty poverty knock, keeping one eye on the clock
I know I can guttle when I hear my shuttle go, 'poverty poverty knock'

Up every morning at five, I wonder that we keep alive
Tired and yawning in the cold morning
It's back to the dreary old drive.

Oh dear we're going to be late
Gaffer is stood at the gate
We're out of pockets, our wages they'll dock it
We'll have to buy grub on the slate

Oh dear we're going to be late
Gaffer is stood at the gate
We're out of pockets, our wages they'll dock it
We'll have to buy grub on the slate

And when our wages they'll bring, we're often short of a string
While we are fighting with gaffer for snatching (?)
We know to his breast he will cling

Oh dear we're going to be late
Gaffer is stood at the gate
We're out of pockets, our wages they'll dock it
We'll have to buy grub on the slate

Sometimes a shuttle flies out
and gives some poor woman a clout
There she lies bleeding but nobody's heeding
Oh who's going to carry her out?

Oh dear we're going to be late
Gaffer is stood at the gate
We're out of pockets, our wages they'll dock it
We'll have to buy grub on the slate

Oh dear, my poor head it sings
I should have woven three strings
My threads are breaking and my back is aching
Oh dear, I wish I had wings

Poverty poverty knock
Poverty poverty knock
Poverty poverty knock

Songwriters: . Traditional / Jim Moray
Poverty Knock lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

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Idris Strike Song
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "English Rebel Songs 1381-1914," © 2003 except 'Coal Not Dole BMG/Copyright Control, © Mutt Records Ltd 2003

Have you been to work at Idris?
No we won't go in today!
For we're standing by our comrade
And we'll never run away
She stood bravely by the Union
And she spoke up for us true
And if she gets the sack
No we never shall go back
What e'er they do, what e'er they do
Now you boys who're washing bottles
It really is a shame
To take the place of women
Don't you think you are to blame?
Come with us and join the Union
Never heed what Idris say
We are out to right the wrong
And now we shan't be long
Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray
Master Willy, master Willy
You must give in once again
It was wrong to sack a woman
With two children to maintain
Thirteen years she's faithful served you

Though she was three minutes late
But our little sister Anne
Why she never checked the man
At the gate, at the gate
Oh you great king in the palace
And you statesman at the top
When you're drinking soda water
Or imbibing ginger pop
Think of some who work at Idris
For very little pay
And who only get nine bob
For a most unpleasant job
Alackaday, alackaday
Now then girls all join the Union
Whatever you may be
In pickles, jam, or chocolates
Or packing pounds of tea
For we all want better wages
And this is what we say
We are out to right the wrong'
And now we shan't be long'
Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray'

Songwriters: Alice Nutter / Allen Whalley / Bruce Dunstan / Darren Hamer / Judith Abbott / Louise Watts / Nigel Hunter / Paul Greco
Idris Strike Song lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "English Rebel Songs 1381-1914," © 2003 except 'Coal Not Dole BMG/Copyright Control, © Mutt Records Ltd 2003

If you want to find the general
I know where he is
I know where he is
I know where he is
If you want to find the general
I know where he is
He's pinning another medal on his chest
I saw him, I saw him
Pinning another medal on his chest
Pinning another medal on his chest
If you want to find the colonel
I know where he is
I know where he is
I know where he is
If you want to find the colonel
I know where he is
He's sitting in comfort stuffing his bloody gut
I saw him, I saw him
Sitting in comfort stuffing his bloody gut
If you want to find the sergeant
I know where he is
I know where he is
I know where he is
If you want to find the sergeant
I know where he is
He's drinking all the company rum
I saw him, I saw him
Drinking all the company rum
Drinking all the company rum
If you want to find the private
I know where he is
I know where he is
I know where he is
If you want to find the private
I know where he is
He's hanging on the old barbed wire
I saw him, I saw him
Hanging on the old barbed wire
Hanging on the old barbed wire

Songwriters: Alice Nutter / Allen Whalley / Bruce Dunstan / Darren Hamer / Judith Abbott / Louise Watts / Nigel Hunter / Paul Greco
Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Coal Not Dole
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "English Rebel Songs 1381-1914," © 2003 except 'Coal Not Dole BMG/Copyright Control, © Mutt Records Ltd 2003

They stand so proud, the wheels so still
A ghost-like figure on the hill
It seems so strange there is no sound
Now there are no men underground
What will become of this pit yard?
Where men once trampled faces hard
So tired and weary their shift's done
Never having seen the sun
There'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power
They'll never realise the hurt
They cause to men they treat like dirt
Will it become a sacred ground?
Foreign tourists gazing round
Asking if men once worked here
Way beneath this pit-head gear
Empty trucks once filled with coal
Lined up like men on the dole
Will they ever be used again?
Or left for scrap just like the men?
There'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power
They'll never realise the hurt
They cause to men they treat like dirt

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Salt Fare, North Sea
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

Salt fare, North Sea (repeats)
Roll on, roll off
With these words I drown
Topmast secured
Hatches battened down
Sometimes I think
It must be different on land
But from the mast I can only see tyrants
Still in command
Fish and Chip supper
Battered, no bones
Hung, drawn and quoted
And drifting alone
One thousand lashes
For the Age of Reason
Salt for your wounds
When the cod's in season
Salt fare, North Sea (repeats)
We reach the horizon
And sail over the edge
Drunk on our memories
More sober than a judge
I'm wasting time
That I can't afford
I know I'd die on the gallows
Before I'd die of being bored
Drifting along, drifting along (repeats)
Salt fare, North Sea (repeats)

Songwriters: Alice Nutter / Allan Whalley / Darren Hamer / Duncan Bruce / Judith Abbott / Louise Watts / Neil Ferguson / Nigel Hunter
Salt Fare, North Sea lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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Jacob's Ladder
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

Jacob's ladder
Like rusty old nails, at the bottom of the sea
Telling no tales, for the good of the Admiralty
You jump when you're told to, through the open door
And the King of Norway, hes the man you all died for

On this, Jacob's Ladder
The only way up is down
Three days in the water
Watching all the secrets drown
Jacob's Ladder

"And they sent him to the wars to be slain, to be slain
And they sent him to the wars to be slain"

A thousand lifetimes, left standing at the docks
In the bar down in Whitehall, they're sure the boat won't rock
In a file marked secrets in a drawer kept closed
Nobody wonders, because nobody knows

On this, Jacob's Ladder
The only way up is down
Three days in the water
Watching all the secrets drown
Jacob's Ladder

"And they sent him to the wars to be slain, to be slain
And they sent him to the wars to be slain"

On this, Jacob's Ladder
The only way up is down
Three days in the water
Watching all the secrets drown
Jacob's Ladder

Songwriters: Judith Abbott / Duncan Bruce / Neil Ferguson / Davy Graham / Darren Hamer / Nigel Hunter / Alice Nutter / Louise Watts / Allan Whalley
Jacob's Ladder lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

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All in Vain
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish (Repeats)
But it's all in vain (Repeats)
Different colors, different faces
Different schools in different places
Scour the morning papers, all in vain
Evening after, who remembers?
Say your prayers for the great pretenders
I see nothing but flowers, all in vain
I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish (Repeats)
But it's all in vain (Repeats)
All the gravestone elegies
I-never-met-you memories
And every T.V. picture, all in vain
All your questions, deep as skin
separate worlds to put them in
Another might-have-been, all in vain
I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish (Repeats)
Color blind as tse-tse flies
Sucking all our difference dry
And as we sleep they multiply (Repeats)
All in vain (Repeats)
Multiply (Repeats)

Songwriters: Judith Abbott / Duncan Bruce / Neil Ferguson / Darren Hamer / Nigel Hunter / Alice Nutter / Louise Watts / Allan Whalley
All in Vain lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Home With Me
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

Your world, my world (Repeats)

San Christobal on New Year's Day
Sunny beach, L.A.
Blue and coral Kirkstall skies
Timorese sunrise
Fairfield Horseshoe in the snow
Clashing worlds in Tokyo
All the bars in County Cork
Heavy rain, New York

I sailed the seven seas
Carved my love on trees
I brought the whole world home with me
Home with me

Your world, my world (Repeats)

Barcelona cobbled streets
Paris, 1968
Words along the Berlin wall
When it's just about to fall

I sailed the seven seas
Carved my love on trees
I brought the whole viltti home with me
Home with me

Your world, my world (Repeats)

Gracelands, Memphis, Tennessee
Killing time, Napoli
Autumn Warsaw, grey and green
Kronstadt 1917

I sailed the seven seas
Carved my love on trees
I brought the whole world home with me
Home with me (Repeats)

Songwriters: Judith Abbott / Duncan Bruce / Neil Ferguson / Darren Hamer / Nigel Hunter / Alice Nutter / Louise Watts / Allan Whalley
Home With Me lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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If It Is to Be, It Is Up to Me
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

If it is to be, it is up to me (Repeats)
And as we sail, blows wild the gale (Repeats)
Sweet flows the water, yellow as royal piss
Speech turns to stammer, your lips are too tight to kiss
I've never seen rabbits looking as scared as this
And as we sail, blows wild the gale (Repeats)
A five times champion wouldn't row as fast
Caught in the eddies between future and past
Blowing a hurricane from the Royal arse
And as we sail, blows wild the gale (Repeats)

Songwriters: Judith Abbott / Duncan Bruce / Neil Ferguson / Darren Hamer / Nigel Hunter / Alice Nutter / Louise Watts / Allan Whalley
If It Is to Be, It Is Up to Me lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Don't Try This at Home
by Chumbawamba
Copyright Notice: "Readymades," © 2002 Chumbawamba

It's a long walk to the gallows
It's a small step to swing free
The crying in the tower
For my conspirators and me
Gunpowder and modem
And a dream of liberty
And then they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
Oh yes they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
If you walk on the beach with King Canute
You'll be walking back alone
Tonight he'll dine on oysters
While we fall like green acorns
We'll be putting down our roots
Right in the centre of the storm
Oh but they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
Oh yes they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
The cry of gulls
The hum of streets
The buzz of phones
The march of feet
We'll meet tonight
To draw up plans, exclamations, ampersands
Somewhere across the water
They're storming palace gates
Scared of the moth-flame metaphor
We fall asleep and wait
Singing for a future but the chorus comes too late
Because they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
Oh yes they'll tell you, 'Don't try this at home'
Don't, don't, don't, don't (Repeats)
Don't try this at home (Repeats)
Try this at home (Repeats)
So we're coming to the last dance
I've got another request
With your best foot forwarext-align:center; d
We'll lay this ghost to rest
(Repeats)

Songwriters: Judith Abbott / Duncan Bruce / Neil Ferguson / Darren Hamer / Nigel Hunter / Alice Nutter / Louise Watts / Allan Whalley
Don't Try This at Home lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC