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GUEST,hazel Lyr ADD: 'When/If We had the Land!' (13) RE: Lyr ADD: 'When/If We had the Land!' 16 Jul 25


This song is by The King Driscolls and is published in their album 'A patchwork of toil', as well as the Landworker's Alliance compilation.
the fulls lyrics as written in their sleeve is as follows (differing slightly from all the above suggestions):

We want folk in the fields and smoke in the lanes, Not villages left empty by commuter trains, We want real rural life, nos a picture postcard and We Want the Land...

We are farmers and crafters and we're hard working souls, But we don't want employment or to do what we're told, We want to build a new future with our own bare hands and We Want the Land...

Well we can't pay house prices and we can't pay the rent, But we can tow an old trailer we can put up a tent, We could make the farmyards and fields our new homes If We had the Land...

We could work fields by hand from morning 'till late, Without combines or tractors or glysophosphate, We'd wipe barren wheat-acres away with our sweat If We had the Land..

And the woodlands would ring with the sound of the axe, we'd carry cart-loads and van-loads and loads on our backs, But we'd take what we needed and let it grow back If We had the Land...

And the villages would bristle with work life once more, Boots stomping, beer spilling on the old pub floor, And the late bus to town wouldn't run anymore If We had the Land...

With scrap metal, old floorboards and fresh coppiced wood, we'd build a ramshackle England where the old one once stood, and it wouldn't be perfect, but it would be good If We had the Land....

So if you feel what I'm singing, or you just hate your job, You like manual labour or upsetting snobs, Join the raggle taggle convoy that they call a mob and cry We Want the Land....


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