Here is the Dick Gaughan version, words from the archive.org version of his website. It's on two of (in my option) his very best albums, if you can get hold of them - "Live in Edinburgh" and "True and Bold: Songs of the Scottish Miners". (I bought my first Gaughan album, True and Bold, on the basis of this song - naively, my 16 year old self thought it was a Bragg cover! I was utterly hooked from the opening bars of Miners Life is Like a Sailor, the first song, and have been ever since.) Come all of you good people You women and you men Once more our backs are to the wall We're being attacked again Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? We've fought a million battles To defend our hard-won rights We're going to have to fight again And I ask you here tonight Thatcher sent MacGregor To smash the NUM And break the workers' unity And I ask you once again The Tories rant and tear their hair And shout 'democracy' But the kind the Tories have in mind Is not for you or me Their screaming about ballots Is pure hypocrisy If they care so much for ballots What about the GLC? By bully boys in uniforms And thugs with riot shields Our comrades' blood is being shed But still they will not yield It's time for a decision And you really have to choose Support the miners' struggle Or the next in line is you
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