# Lefty songs, Labour Songs ahoy!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 22, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393 "2009-01-22T02:10:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/21 "2009-01-22T12:02:07Z")
Check out [Half Man Half Biscuit](http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb/) for a folk/rock sound with left(ish) lyrics.
Some very funny lines and catchy tunes, often actually based on folk song tunes.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/22 "2009-01-22T12:16:31Z")
This is an interesting one - a single I bought back in the 80s, when the book _[Spycatcher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycatcher)_ was published, containing lots of juicy Cold War anecdotes from an ex-MI5 man.
Exceedingly controversially, Margaret Thatcher banned the book, though it was subsequently published in Australia. However - anecdotally the Oyster Band and Billy Bragg got round the censorship rules, because summarising the book in song form wasn’t illegal. Thus the entire book’s content is reproduced in doggerel in [The Ballad of a Spycatcher](http://www.braggtopia.com/songs/spycatcher-words.htm).
Bonus was the B-side _Song of the Free Press_, with the chorus (from memory):
\*We are the press
The great free press
The guardians of
The national interest.
Fearlessly our daily tune
Is down with trendy lefty loonies
Down with scroungers on the dole
And down with strikes
(Except in Poland).\*
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/23 "2009-01-22T12:22:23Z")
Hmm, on further Googling I find the following
[quote]
([http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/banned.html](http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/banned.html)) from Leon Rosselson, showing my memory to be clouded: they wrote it specifically for it to be banned, and its publication _was_ illegal.
> [@](#):
>
> Written to challenge the ruling of the three Law Lords that Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher - a biography on his work as…a spycatcher for the British government - could not be published in this country, nor could the press quote from or refer to any of the material in the book. It took me two days to devour the book and regurgitate it (including even the odd lump in intact quotation) in these memorable verses. So the song was definitely illegal, and the least we could hope for was a blanket banning from the airwaves. Alas, after some initial hesitation, a single of the song started to receive radio play and even rose to number 7 in the NME indie singles charts. So much for subversive intentions…
> I remember hearing it on a Simon Bates mid morning show on Radio 1 in 1987, with a big run up to the actual playing along the lines of him expecting a court order (or the police) demanding that he not play the song; he did, they didn’t. But it was generally frowned upon, just the same.
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### Author:  [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/24 "2009-01-22T12:27:50Z")
Part of the union - Strawbs.
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOCWUgwiWs)
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/25 "2009-01-22T12:35:21Z")
Pretty much any song by the Manic Street Preachers. (Most of their song titles seem to be taken from communist propaganda slogans from the Spanish Civil War.) Lefty songs:
[The masses against the class](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vJyJGcI1n9g)
[A design for life](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz00_3LbdmM)
[If you tolerate this, then your children will be next](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm7ddqkgzFw&feature=related)
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/26 "2009-01-22T14:33:57Z")
> [@Art\_Rock](#):
>
> Part of the union - Strawbs.
I always took that to be _anti_ union. It seems completely sarcastic, and it was written when the British unions were in the early days of their ascendancy towards toppling the government. Just a thought.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/27 "2009-01-22T15:22:44Z")
Bob Seger’s [Makin’ Thunderbirds.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITefc61_gy0)
I like [this version of Joe Hill.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfEVcVQyEbI)
Mustn’t forget L7’s [When We Pretend That We’re Dead.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-NNitijboI)
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/28 "2009-01-22T15:34:26Z")
Chumbawumba - Tubthumping
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm4iU0yx9GY)
KLF - It’s grim up north - needs some explanation, following the 1980’s recession when pretty much the whole of the North of the UK had a deep recession, and the South of the UK was in boom time, the message appeared on a motorway bridge a graffitti and was taken up as a meme - the north had been effectively written off as far as the London politicians were concerned.
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwtSdJaPCSI)
Here is a very old one, its been used by trade unionists for a good hundreed years, though probably not as a reggae number I would imagine, the lyrics are not too clear on the vidd, so here they are - well out of copyright.
> **[poemsplace.net - This website is for sale! - poemsplace...](http://ww16.poemsplace.net/html/165/690395.html?sub1=20231001-0416-5420-8bc4-a859863530ce)**
>
> This website is for sale! poemsplace.net is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, poemsplace.net has it all. We hope you find what you are...
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axms81evxJc)
I can’t believe Joan Baez gets no mention here so far,
Joan Baez -Dona Dona - This song became part of the anthem for the velvet revolution in Czeckslovakia.
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-11Tlrs9fU)
> **[Velvet Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution)**
>
> Government
> Opposition
> Supported by:
> United States
> Hardliners:
No list could even begin to be correct without the following - the grandaddy of all revolutionary songs…
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g)
Someone already mentioned this, here is the link
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eziuTLKKS7U/hqdefault.jpg "Billy Bragg - "There Is Power In A Union"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eziuTLKKS7U)
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/29 "2009-01-22T15:36:35Z")
[James Connolly](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwEv2YCrSoY) - Black 47 (Live version but whatcha gonna do?)
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/30 "2009-01-22T15:41:58Z")
> [@jjimm](#):
>
> I always took that to be _anti_ union. It seems completely sarcastic, and it was written when the British unions were in the early days of their ascendancy towards toppling the government. Just a thought.
That’s an interesting intepretation. It’s based upon the song Union Maid though I think. The lyrical structure seems the same etc.
> **["Union Maid" by Woody Guthrie](https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Union_Maid.htm)**
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/31 "2009-01-22T15:47:25Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> That’s an interesting intepretation. It’s based upon the song Union Maid though I think. The lyrical structure seems the same etc.
> ["Union Maid" by Woody Guthrie](http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Union_Maid.htm)
If you look at [the Strawbs’ lyrics](http://www.ocap.ca/songs/parunion.html), I think they’re a deliberate pastiche of Union Maid, rather than a paean:
_When we meet in the local hall
I’ll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout
It’s out brothers out
And the rise of the factory’s fall._
Why would a worker want their place of employment to be ruined? Unless of course they were deluded and drunk on power.
_So though I’m a working man
I can ruin the government’s plan
Though I’m not too hard
The sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman._
And I can’t see the above verse as anything **but** sarcastic.
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### Author:  [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/32 "2009-01-22T15:51:14Z")
[David Rovics](http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310) (US - everything left-related you can think of)
[Attila The Stockbroker](http://www.myspace.com/attilastockbroker) (UK - anarchist)
[Robb Johnson](http://www.myspace.com/irregularrobbjohnson) (UK - anti-war)
[Anne Feeney](http://www.myspace.com/annefeeneyreally) (US - labour)
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/33 "2009-01-22T16:14:59Z")
> [@bluecanary](#):
>
> [David Rovics](http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310) (US - everything left-related you can think of)
I’ve seen this chap live. He’s pretty good.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/34 "2009-01-22T16:49:20Z")
Timbuk 3 is pretty good for left-leaning lyrics (thanks again, **dbygawdcapn** , for the CD!).
Try “Grand Old Party” for general Republican debauchery (though I get shades of Chappaquidik in it too):
_My heat seaking whistles
And misguided missiles
Went a little bit too far,
And a back seat cuddle
Turned into a struggle
And I totalled my car;
If you are what you eat
I’m dead meat
But weren’t we hale and hearty?
At the end of the day
I really have to say,
It was a Grand Old Party._
“Dirty Dirty Rice” for empathising with homelessness, and “Waves of Grain” for innocent parties getting caught up in covert CIA counterterrorism manuevres (eerily pre-empting the whole Extraordinary Rendition concept by 15 year).
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/35 "2009-01-22T16:54:51Z")
Was the Strawbs’ song popular with union folk at the time?
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### Author:  [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/36 "2009-01-22T16:56:41Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> As some of you may know or care I harbour a warm love and regard for left wing songs. Regardless of political efficacy these songs rouse the spirit despite all those murdered in the name of similar ideals.
What kind of jackeen would leave [Luke Kelly’s version of Rising of the Moon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYIdrV3cdlk) off that list? 😃
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/37 "2009-01-22T16:57:51Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> Was the Strawbs’ song popular with union folk at the time?
Mr Wicky Pedia says:
> [@](#):
>
> The song was unofficially adopted by the trade union movement, and it is widely considered to be a proud folk anthem for the working man. However, the lyrics may be read as somewhat sarcastically anti-trade union.
I promise you I didn’t insert that bit about saracsm.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/38 "2009-01-22T17:12:30Z")
Blackleg Miner [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWA7QujvQl0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWA7QujvQl0)
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/39 "2009-01-22T17:32:53Z")
I’m not sure how left-wing it is, but it certainly deals with labour issues: [The Chemical Worker’s Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSiRWHXz6Ps&feature=related) by Great Big Sea. I have no idea what’s going on with that video, but the audio is what I’m talking about.
Fortunate Son by CCR has some anti-upper-class stuff in it, too.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lefty-songs-labour-songs-ahoy/482393/40 "2009-01-22T17:39:26Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#):
>
> What kind of jackeen would leave [Luke Kelly’s version of Rising of the Moon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYIdrV3cdlk) off that list? 😃
Is that song really lefty though? Everyone from rightwing conservative to the other end of the spectrum can enjoy that song.
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