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Honest Working Man

  • (Eric Bogle)

    I'm pleased to meet you, my name's Dan, I'm an honest working man
    That's a tarnished badge, they tell me, but it's one I wear with pride
    A fair day's work for a fair day's pay, I've always lived my life that way
    But now I can't help thinking I've been taken for a ride

    All those years on the factory floor, working in the ceaseless roar
    Made me old before my time, wrecked my hearing and my health
    And when I total up the cost, what I've gained to what I've lost
    I ask myself, Now Dan, what's the total of your plan
    How much is your life worth?

    I live in a house I'll never own, I couldnae get a housing loan
    Bank managers and folk like that don't rate the likes of me
    And feeding kids on a fitter's wage, I always found it hard to save
    It seems that honest working hands are no security

    All those years of toil and sweat, climbing in and out of debt
    I often look back on them and I ask myself, For what?
    For a rented house in a grimy street, an endless fight to make ends meet
    When you add them all together it doesn't make a lot
    But it's all, it's all I've got

    But a man's life can't be judged alone on what he has or what he owns
    It's what he loves and cares for that gives it quality
    What brings meaning to my life are my children and my wife
    We've always stuck together, we've always been a family

    But now my kids are rotting on the dole, holding out a beggar's bowl
    I see the anger in their eyes, it cuts me to the heart
    So shall I simply stand aside and watch them coldly crucified
    See all I've worked and cared for slowly fall apart
    No by Christ, I won't do that

    I'm pleased to meet you, my name's Dan, I'm an honest working man
    That's a tarnished badge, they tell me, but it's one I wear with pride
    A fair day's work for a fair day's pay, I've always lived my life that way
    But now I can't help thinking I've been taken for a ride

    And although I've not got much to spare, what I have I'm going to share
    To give my kids and other kids some purpose, pride and place
    And those who grew fat on the sweat, I promise them I won't forget
    When I asked them to share the load, they laughed right in my face
    Oh, they laughed right in my face

    I'm pleased to meet you, my name's Dan, I'm an honest working man

    (as sung by Iain MacKintosh)

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  • [1981:] Like many industrial societies, Australia faces the 80s with uncomfortably high levels of those twin evils, unemployment and inflation. I wrote this song to illustrate the anger and despair of many working men in Australia who, after having worked all their lives to give their kids a good start in life, now find that most of their work has been in vain as many of their kids now can't find jobs and face an uncertain future on the dole. (Notes Eric Bogle, 'Plain and Simple')

Quelle: Scotland / Australia

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