Author: protestfamily

The world's favourite east London semi-acoustic political sing along folk punk group.

Not a Damn Thing

Just Stop Oil getting on a plane
Gap year protest I hear you all complain
But you know she’s right and she has a life too
What exactly do you think that she’s supposed to do
Affected by the issues, here’s a helpline you can ring
It might make you feel better, but it won’t change a damn thing

Not a damn thing

You could be more mindful, here’s a book to colour in
But that won’t stop the fascism they’re tryin’ to usher in
Or you could do some yoga, do a downward dog or two
Take a deep breath and welcome in the new you
Affected by the issues, here’s a helpline you can ring
It might make you feel better, but it won’t change a damn thing

Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing

It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything
It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything…. (Yes, we can)

One has got the eyes, the other’s got the stare
There ain’t a fag paper between them to be fair
They ain’t on your side, you know this much is true
They ain’t on your side, so what you gonna do
Affected by the issues, here’s a helpline you can ring
It might make you feel better, but it won’t change a damn thing

Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing

They won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything
They won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything…yes, we can

How about some CBT or pop a pill or two
How about you drown it out in your choice of booze
Maybe you could meditate, and it would be OK
Maybe if we stick together there’s a better way
Affected by the issues, here’s a helpline you can ring
It might make you feel better, but it won’t change a damn thing

Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing

It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything
It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything…yes, we can

Just Stop Oil getting on a plane
Just Stop Oil glued to the road again
You say the wrong tactics at the wrong time
But what are you prepared to do to combat climate crime
Affected by the issues, here’s a helpline you can ring
It might make you feel better, but it won’t change a damn thing

Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing

It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything
It won’t change a damn thing, but we can change anything…yes, we can

Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing
Not a damn thing

by Categories: Lyrics, SteveTags: , , , , , 1 Comment

A Life of Rhyme

They rhymed them right
They rhymed them wrong
They rhymed in poetry and song
And when they saw things were not fair
They’d rhyme and oft times even swear

They rhymed them left
They rhymed them right
They rhymed them up
They rhymed them down
They rhymed by day
They rhymed by night
They rhymed the flat cap and the crown

Yes, rhymed of princes
Rhymed of kings
And rhymed of more important things
Like rhymes of sand and outward tides
They rhymed as means of taking sides

They rhymed in anger
Rhymed in sorrow
Rhymed the new
With rhymes they’d borrow
Rhymed with rage
And with frustration
Rhymed with wit
And devastation

Armed with punches wrapped in rhyme
Seemed they were rhyming all the time
So when folk said, why don’t you stop
Your rhyming’s just a lefty sop
They said, it’s in our DNA
And rhymed until they went away

I’ll tell you this and tell it true
Their rhymes could turn you red from blue
Their rhymes were like a megaphone
Their rhymes said you are not alone

They might not rhyme you rich from poor
They might not rhyme you debt from debtor
But when you felt it hit the floor
They’d rhyme until it all felt better

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Perfectly Decent

As crass as Johnson’s letterbox
As nasty as GB News
As hateful as Douglas Murray
As ugly as Suella’s views

She says they’re mainstream
She says they’re insightful
Perfectly decent

Like a speech from the Right Honourable Member
For Northeast Somerset
From Bournemouth to Blackpool Council
They’re as bad as you will get

She says they’re mainstream
She says they’re insightful
Perfectly decent

From Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood
To Thatcher’s apartheid friend
From swarm and invasion to describe immigration
To the hostile environment

She says they’re mainstream
She says they’re insightful
Perfectly decent

So who needs Tommy Robinson
Who needs the Britain First crowd
Who needs Reform, who needs Reclaim
When the Tories are saying it loud

She says they’re mainstream
She says they’re insightful
Perfectly decent

She says they’re mainstream
She says they’re insightful
But they’re just racist

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Nelson

In the kingdom of the blind
A one-eyed man is king
He wears a tricorn hat
And his right arm’s just a sling
They’ll pickle him in brandy
When his last race is run
And he’s shagging Lady Hamilton
In a pub they call The Gun

His pals in the West Indies
Are keen on keeping slaves
That damnable Wilberforce
Our one-eyed hero raves
I’ll fight him with both arm and tongue
The lifestyle he betrays
I’m old school colonialist
And Britannia rules the waves

In the kingdom of the blind
A one-eyed man is king
He wears a tricorn hat
And his right arm’s just a sling
One day there’ll be a column
Upon which he’ll proudly stand
And the blind eye will be ours
In this green and pleasant land

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Susan Hall

Will London elect a racist mayor
In Susan, who doesn’t care
For carnival, says it’s hell
Is anti-#BLM as well
And in supporting Donald Trump
Tried to give Sadiq the hump

Susan, known to opine
On black folks and the cause of crime
Says she will hunt down and lock up
With a special team set up

Safer With Susan the tagline screams
Makes you wonder from whom she means

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Derek Wants His Country Back

Derek wants his country back
It’ll be in the last place that he looks
It won’t be on the bookshelf
Nestled amongst the books
Or in the cupboard under the stairs
Behind the coats on hooks
It won’t be in the kitchen
Being hidden by the cooks
It won’t be wedged in any crannies
Nor in any nooks
It won’t be floating in rivers
Streams, canals or brooks
Or up a tree, cached away
By magpies, crows or rooks
It won’t be missing legitimately
Or stolen by some crooks
Or on holiday in Israel
Staying on a kibbutz
It won’t be waiting patiently
Or on tenterhooks
It won’t be in the hunting lodge
Or on the plain it overlooks
It’s not hovering in helicopters
Be they Sikorskies or Chinooks
Or in the chicken shed
Laying with the chooks
Derek wants his country back
He’s tearing out his hair
But unfortunately for Derek
It was never really there

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Bibby Stockholm

Refugees on barges
Jeering little Farages
When Britannia ruled the waves
James Bibby was transporting slaves
Meanwhile humanitarians
Are Nick Ferrari’s enemy

Refugees on prison ships
Suella’s bag of cruel tricks
Singing Rule Britannia
Let’s make you all unhappier
Somewhere there’s a statue
That needs chucking in the sea

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Rat Run Rishi

Rat Run Rishi’s put his foot to the floor
Rat Run Rishi loves the motorist more
Low traffic neighbourhoods, he doesn’t think we should
He’s bringing high traffic back to the neighbourhood
Where we’ve got shit in the water, grit in the air
We’ve got the top down, got the wind in our hair
The freedom of the highway, the myth that sells you cars
While the freedom of the skies is his, not ours
‘Cause Rishi’s commute is in a luxury chopper
Not in the morning rush like your average shopper
Meanwhile in the countryside, his kids breathe clean, fresh air
He’s on the side of motorists, Rishi doesn’t care

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Reviewed by Attila the Stockbroker in the Morning Star

Leyton Orient’s house band Steve White and the Protest Family, truly radical folk with fire in their souls … deliver the goods with Trickledown Town, a ranting, dancing howl of rage at the state of the Tory nation…The royal family get nailed, the “anti-woke” right-wing media get nailed and a host of downtrodden characters get upbeat support.

Read the full article here.

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Reviewed by The Rocking Magpie

What I do like though are the punchy and vibrant Dead End Friends and the crackling Supersonic, which is no relation to the Oasis song of the same title; but I think Noel wishes he could still write a song as insightful as this is.

You can read the full review here.

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