Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Daddy What Did You Do in the Strike

Daddy What Did You Do in the Strike

Daddy What Did You Do in the Strike
 (Ewan MacColl)

 It was in the year of '84 s*** really hit the fan
 When 'Mac the Knife' MacGregor, Maggie Thatcher's hatchet-man
 Said, Another twenty pits will have to close to meet the plan
 And we'll dump another twenty thousand miners

 Daddy were you with the first of the first
 Did you tell the NCB to do its worst
 Or did you save your lily liver
 Sell the union down the river
 A scab, a blackleg, one forever cursed

 When Arthur Scargill heard the news he cried, This Yankee slob
 Is a gift from Cowboy Reagan and he's here to steal our jobs
 Do an axe-job on the union for the crummy Thatcher mob
 But we'll show him what it means to be a miner

 Daddy did you man the picket-line
 Did you fight to save the future of the mines
 Or did you take the wrong direction
 Did you squeal for police protection
 Did you let 'em see your india-rubber spine

 Well the Yorkshire lads came out on strike and said, It's evident
 The only way to stop MacGregor and the government
 Is to bring the lads out everywhere from Scotland down to Kent
 And we'll show 'em what it means to be a miner

 Daddy what did you do in the strike
 Did you stand there with your mates and join the fight
 Or did you show a yellow belly
 Spill your guts out on the telly
 Did you let the bosses fill you full of s***e

 Some didn't heed the strike call for guts and brains they lack
 They're the colour of a primrose though their hearts and legs are black
 And their noses are all brown with being up the rear of Mac
 They're just a bunch of dirty blackleg miners

 Daddy did you march at the head
 Did you stand there on the picket-line unfed
 Or did you sell your mates to have a
 Fortnight on the Costa Brava
 Did you choose a two-week holiday instead

 Well the battle it is joined at last the forces they are massed
 On their side the press the telly all the weapons of their class
 Plus MacGregor and his blacklegs but we'll never let 'em pass
 The NUM's the weapon of the miners

 Daddy what did you do in the strike
 Did you scab and let your workmates wage the fight
 How the neighbours stood and booed us
 Said we had the stink of Judas
 Daddy what did you do in the strike

SKW
oct99