Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)

Subject: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper Ray Hearne
From: le cheffie
Date: 21 Feb 17 - 02:58 AM

Hi Would any one have the lyrics for this song please.
TIA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper Ray Hearne
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Feb 17 - 09:14 AM

I take it you are not talking about the one set to the Dixon of Dock Green theme tune and recorded by Jack Warner in the 50's/60s:

Just an ordinary copper, who's patrolling his beat
Around Dock Green.
"Hello, Mr Dixon," say the kids in the street
Around Dock Green.
The CID are always in the headlines
But I prefer the ordinary scene
As an ordinary copper, who's patrolling his beat
Around Dock Green.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper Ray Hearne
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 22 Feb 17 - 09:08 AM

I doubt it Snuffy, I think it was only produced in 2011 for " Ballads of the Miners Strike"
It is on Spotify, but I am sure if you contact Ray via his web site he will help you, Le Cheffie, he's that sort of chap.

Subject: Lyr Add: ORDINARY COPPER (Ray Hearne)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Feb 17 - 06:35 PM

Here's my attempt at a transcription, via Spotify. It took me a while to figure out that "the charge at Agincourt" was not "the charge-attaching corps" so I suppose there could be other errors. I have marked a few that I consider doubtful.


ORDINARY COPPER
As sung by Ray Hearne on "The Radio Ballads: The Ballad of the Miners' Strike" (2011)

I am an ordinary copper as I always like to say.
I was brought up in this pit community.
Me father was a ripper, sipping(?) coal dust every day.
I know all about the miners' unity.
I can hear him telling both of us, my brother Tom and me:
"Don't do what your dad did; stay away from muck and grease.
Be a chauffeur, chef or carpenter, or concert secret'ry."
Well, I always thought I'd like to join t'police.

They bused us up to Walgreen(?) in the June of eighty-four.
First they stationed me at Junction Thirty-Three.
We were funneling the pickets through a bobby(?) corridor
Till we 'ad 'em where we wanted 'em to be.
Then they marched us in a column and they formed us into lines,
And me, I never doubted we were there to keep the peace.
With dogs and horses, batons, shields, and armoured to the nines,
That were never why I thought I'd join t'police.

And when they set the horses off and loosed the dogs of war,
And the riot squads were beating on their shields,
It were like another Zulu war, the charge at Agincourt,
As they ran amok across the Illey(?) fields.
I had to pull a giant of a Met bloke off a lad.
His eyes were big and bulging, his face a deep cerise.
He were truncheoning and battering just the same as he were mad.
That were never ever why I joined t'police.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 24 Feb 17 - 03:21 AM

Great effort, Jim!

I think it's Orgreave rather than Walgreen:

Battle of Orgreave on Wikipedia

LFF

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 24 Feb 17 - 07:43 AM

Well done, Jim.
I think you will find that illey is actually ULLEY, the village near Orgreave.
Sipping was most likely to be STRIPPING and Bobby is most probably correct.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: le cheffie
Date: 15 Mar 17 - 06:40 PM

Thank you Jim much apreciated

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 May 17 - 05:57 AM

Listening to Bob Fox's version (Bob may have tweaked it slightly):

Bob says "sipping" - this makes more sense, you strip the coal, not it's dust.
It's definitely Orgreave.
Bob sings "body corridor"
Bob sings "hilly fields" - makes more sense as they are hilly (I can see them from where I work) and Ulley is too far away.
Bob also sings another two verses. I tried to get in to see Ray at a gig in June 2017 but it's sold out and I'm on teh waiting list. If I get in I'll ask him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: GUEST,Mark taha
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 06:27 PM

Nice to.know they're still writing monologues.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ordinary Copper (Ray Hearne)
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 06:56 AM

Ordinary Copper · Ray Hearne    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxfgy15jHA
An Ordinary Copper (Dixon of Dock Green) · Jack Warner     https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kwq8O2ILgSQ