Only Doing Their Job (Ewan MacColl) 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 a two And consider some points I would mention There are slanderous tongues always 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 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 SKW oct99
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!