The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7306   Message #44248
Posted By: John in Brisbane
04-Nov-98 - 07:14 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Songs by Jeremy Taylor
Subject: RE: JEREMY TAYLOR LYRICS
Prawns in the Game is too too good a song to leave this thread unanswered. I have only performed this song a couple of times and no longer have the lyrics. Jeremy was still doing tours to Australia until the last 10 years or so. I last saw him at the now defunct Troubadour in Melbourne at that time. The bits I can recall are something like:

The author's story benind the song - by the time he got home to his hotel after gigs, the only TV shows available were BBC news programs, relying heavily on interviews with union officialdom and shop-stewards. Needless to say the workers' representatives of the time played merry hell with the Queen's English, and used lots of left-wing cliches. He dutifully recorded them, including one statement "We're all just prawns in the game" and encapsulated it in this song.
For better or worse the same interviews today would be conducted with educated individuals, working to scripts crafted by PR professionals and clearly without the colour of that period.

(Sung in a very whingeing, shop-steward, English accent)

Bruvvers, bruvvers, we all know why we're here
We've stated our demands, we've made it perfectly clear
L The management of this factory is pushing us around,
So are we gonna stand here and take it lying down,

Chorus
No! We're not! We've got our rights,
No! We won't give in without a fight,
It's the bosses wot gets the money, and it's the workers gets the blame,
And it's time they stopped treating us like PRAWNS IN THE GAME.
Prawns in the game, prawns in the game,
It's time they stopped treating us like PRAWNS IN THE GAME,

Now we got the support of AJAX and the ENTAU,
And the AFDLWERP....errr, and as far as we're concerned,
At this particular junction in time,
We're by-passing the union, cos they're just toeing the line.

From the shores of Czechoslovakia (pause for laugh),
To Hungary and Spain,
The writing's on the wall bruvvers, the message is plain,
This Government's trying to con us with another wages freeze,
But the aim of the Party bruvvers, is to bring the country to its knees.

Now we've got a right to strike bruvvers,
And we've got a right to work,
And we've got a right to stay on strike for the right to go back to work
????????????

Best I can do,
Regards
John