Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Joe Offer ADD: Chemical Worker's Song (Ron Angel) (59* d) DT Correction: Chemical Worker's Song 14 Mar 21


The lyrics in the Digital Tradition come from the post from "Poet" above. I'll listen to the Ron Angel Recording and post my corrections on the right side.
I. C. I. SONG (CHEMICAL WORKERS SONG)(DT Lyrics)
(Ron Angel)

A process man am I and I'm telling you no lie.
I've worked and breathed among the fumes.
That trail across the sky.
There's thunder all around me and poison in the air.
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell. And dust all in my hair.

Cho: But you go boys go.
They time your every breath.
And every day you're in this place .
you're two days nearer death, but you go.

I've worked among the spinners I've breathed in the oil and smoke.
I've shovelled up the gypsum till it nigh on makes you choke.
I've stood knee deep in cyanide gone sick with a caustic burn.
I've been working rough I've seen enough to make your stomach turn.

There's overtime there's bonus opportunities galore.
The young men like the money. Aye they all come back for mare.
Ah but soon you're knocking on. You look older than you should.
For every bob made on this job you pay with flesh and blood.

Repeat first verse.
ICI SONG (CHEMICAL WORKERS' SONG) (corrected)
(Ron Angel)

A process man am I and I'm telling you no lie.
I work and breathe among the fumes
That trail across the sky.
There's thunder all around me and poison in the air.
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell, And dust all in my hair.

CHORUS:
And it's go boy go.
They'll time your every breath.
And every day you're in this place .
You're two days nearer death, but you go.

I've worked among the spinners, I've breathed in the oily smoke.
I've shoveled up the gypsum, and it nigh on makes you choke.
I've stood knee deep in cyanide, gone sick with a caustic burn.
Been working rough and seen enough to make your stomach turn.
CHORUS

There's overtime and bonus opportunities galore.
The young lads like the money and they all come back for more.
But soon you're knocking on and look older than you should.
For every bob made on this job, you pay with flesh and blood.
CHORUS (TWICE)


Steve Lane (above) posted an additional verse written later by Ron Angel:
    I've worked in the compressors, learned to lip read with the rest
    I cycled past the nitrite felt the prickle in me chest
    I've toiled in the anhydrite got blistered down the mine
    I'm showering well to shift the smell you get from Ollyfine



The notes in the Digital Tradition are from Suzanne's post above.

Recorded a few years ago by the Canadian group, Great Big Sea on their album "Up
" . Lorre Wyatt recorded it on his Roots and Branches for Folk-Legacy.

@science @work
filename[ CHEMWORK
GG
apr00


Thread #14681   Message #127610
Posted By: Susanne (skw)
24-Oct-99 - 08:38 PM
Thread Name: ADD: Chemical Worker's Song
Subject: RE: LyrHelpReq: Chemical Worker's Song

The song was written by Ron Angel, who is from I don't know where. But the following extract from Sean Damer's 'Glasgow - Going for a Song' illustrates the song's theme quite well, I think.

[1990:] In the period before the First World War, a great deal of industrial work was highly dangerous. There was no such thing as Health and Safety at Work regulations; the life of a worker was literally cheap. Some of the works must have appeared like Dante's 'Inferno'. [...] The terrible costs of working in this particular inferno [in the mid-19th century] were revealed some thirty years later, in 1889, in a newspaper interview with one of the chemical workers [of Tennant's St Rollox Chemical Works in Glasgow]: "[...] If a man goes to the works young he will be past working before he reaches forty years of age [...]. For instance, you will easily know a chrome-worker from the fact that, as a rule, the bridge of his nose is completely eaten away. [...]" The majority of the chemical workers [in Glasgow] were Irish; they were paid an average of 15s 6d per week, a pitiful wage. [...] The dreadful conditions in these chemical plants were the subject of Keir Hardie's famous attacks on Lord Overtoun in 1899. Overtoun was the proprietor of a large chemical works on the Glasgow-Rutherglen border, and also a noted philanthropist and man of religion. Keir Hardie, in a series of articles in the socialist newspaper 'Labour Leader' - subsequently reprinted as pamphlets - exposed the fearful working conditions in Overtoun's chemical works. He confirmed that the workers rapidly lost the cartilage in their nose working with these noxious chemicals, but also suffered from 'chrome holes' being burnt in their body, and respiratory diseases. Moreover, they worked a twelve-hour day, seven-day week - with no time off for meals, and in foul conditions. (Damer, Glasgow 62f)


Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.
   * Click on the linked number with * to view the thread split into pages (click "d" for chronologically descending).

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.