Day 312: A Working Man's Song, Once More
A working man is a working man, and there are so many songs about the working man, from "Sixteen Tons" to "Working in a Coal Mine". Among the working men, you find the slaves, those people ripped off of their individual human rights. By the use of metaphor, Afro-American and African-American (offspring of) slaves in the NEW world have called themselves "Israelites", just because in the story of sacred history "owned" by their suppressors, Israel was a slave in Egypt's land. Makes me think and wonder. Ska, not Reggae, Dekker, not Marley: The Israelites, 1969:
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
so that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
My wife and my kids, they are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Shirt them a-tear up, trousers are gone.
I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
After a storm there must be a calm.
They catch me in the farm. You sound the alarm.
Poor me, the Israelite. Aah.
Poor me, the Israelite.
I wonder who I'm working for.
Poor me, Israelite,
I look a-down and out, sir.
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