Come All You Idle Worker

1

O come all you idle workers and listen to my song

And if you pay attention I won’t detain you long

It’s of a certain person who you see before you now

I’ve turned me hand to writing songs, I mean to tell you how

I never would have thought that I would take the poet’s role

But everything is different now, now I’m on the dole.

 

(Chorus)

Oh, we are the idle workers, the million unemployed.

Our services aren’t needed, our jobs have been destroyed.

Some of us were sewing shirts, and some were digging coal,

But everything is different now, now we’re on the dole.

 

(Alternative chorus lines)

O come all you idle workers and join me in my song,

The system puts us out of work, the system must be wrong,

But things are going to alter when the workers take control

And then we’ll get together and put the bosses on the dole.

 

…We know that things won’t change until the workers take control

So why not have a little rest and live upon the dole.

…So I’ll do something useful while I’m living on the dole… etc.)

 

2

I used to wake each morning, feeling really bad,

The sound of the alarm-clock used to drive me mad,

I didn’t like the way the foreman ordered me around,

And when it got to four o’clock my head was going round,

The place I used to work in was a dirty little hole,

But everything is different now, now I’m on the dole.

 

3

I used to have to go to work to get my daily bread,

The dole was just for scroungers, that was what they said,

But now the times are bad and unemployment’s on the rise,

They haven’t got a job for me of any shape or size,

I used to be a wage-slave and it drove me up the pole,

But everything is different now, now i’m on the dole.

 

4

When I got home from work I’d start to grumble and to grouse,

I used to leave me wife to do the work around the house,

When I got me cards, I thought I’d live a life of ease,

I shouted for me wife to bring me a in a cup of tea,

But in she comes and tells me with a look as black as coal.

“You know you’ll have to do your bit, now you’re on the dole”.

 

5

I used to take the kids out every now and then,

Now I’ve got the time to get to know ‘em once again,

I do a bit of housework so me wife can be more free,

Complete me education in the public library,

I’ve started writing poetry and I reckon on the whole

Variety’s the spice of life, when you’re on the dole.

 

6

The only disadvantage is, the money’s pretty poor,

I can’t afford the sorts of things I used to buy before,

We have to stick together now, and share the things we’ve got,

I heard that Harry Hyams had to buy a bigger yacht,

I met a former boss of mine, a most respected soul,

He had to stand behind me in the queue to get the dole.

 

7

A man came around with leaflets, and told us not to shirk,

He wanted us to demonstrate, demand the right to work,

I told ’im it was clear to me the system’s going wrong.

But I thought I deserved a break, I’d been at work so long,

Now I don’t want the right to work in some old dirty are

I’d rather take a holiday, now I’m on the dole.