Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Only Doing Their Job

Only Doing Their Job

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