Billy Bragg - To Have And To Have Not lyrics

Up in the morning and out to school

Mother says there'll be no work next year

Qualifications once the Golden Rule

Are now just pieces of paper

Just because you're better than me

Doesn't mean I'm lazy

Just because you're going forwards

Doesn't mean I'm going backwards

If you look the part you'll get the job

In last year's trousers and your old school shoes

The truth is son, it's a buyer's market

They can afford to pick and choose

Just because you're better than me

Doesn't mean I'm lazy

Just because I dress like this

Doesn't mean I'm a communist

The factories are closing and the army's full -

I don't know what I'm going to do

But I've come to see in the Land of the Free

There's only a future for the Chosen Few

Just because you're better than me

Doesn't mean I'm lazy

Just because you're going forwards

Doesn't mean I'm going backwards

At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap

At sixteen you were top of the class

All they taught you at school

Was how to be a good worker

The system has failed you, don't fail yourself

Just because you're better than me

Doesn't mean I'm lazy

Just because you're going forwards

Doesn't mean I'm going backwards