Man of Convictions

I was first led astray in the pub one night when
These long-haired blokes started to sing
About magic dragons and tambourine men,
And other peculiar things.
So I smoked this fag, which didn’t half make me cough,
They said it would soon set me free;
But when I knocked Constable John’s helmet off
It did quite the opposite for me.
    I’m a man of convictions, but I was confined;
    I got one night's restriction for stepping out of line.
    Then came the infliction of a twenty-pound fine;
    In that jingle, jangle morning I’ll come following you.

When I next heard them sing 'twas the landlords they scoffed,
They sang “This land is my land and yours.”
So I went out next morning, and fenced a bit off,
And used it for grazing my horse.
But then Colonel Heart said the land was his own,
And forced me to take down the fence.
Well the Lord forgives trespass, but the magistrates don’t,
And Heart was the chair of the bench.
    I'm a man of convictions, I told them with pride,
    And your jurisdiction I hereby deny;
    Impressed with my diction they gave me three months inside,
    But the times, they are a changin’.

When I’d finished my sentence I swore I’d be deaf
To the songs they were singing to me.
But when they sang one about how property’s theft,
I jumped up and cried, “Glory be!”
For now I could see that the reason I’m poor
Is because someone else has stolen it all,
So I stole it back, plus a little bit more,
And here’s what I said at the trial:
    I'm a man of convictions, it can’t be denied,
    It’s just contradiction that caused me to slide.
    But they said that’s fiction, take two years inside,
    But you know that was the last thing on my mind.

Now older, but wiser, I came out today,
And I went for a nice quiet drink,
But those blasted folk-singers they started again,
And once again set me to think.
They sang that for freedom of speech they’d a lust,
And how for that freedom they’d fight;
They swore to that end they would die if they must,
So I just helped them prove they were right.
    I’m a man of convictions, I don’t think I did wrong,
    By means of constriction I ended their song,
    My lawyer’s prediction is bleak from hereon,
    But we shall overcome, some day.

Source:
Man of Convictions
The Life and Work of George Kipper
Sinner/Songwriter
Edited by Chris Sugden and Sid Kipper
Norwich: Mousehold Press, 2003