'To Have and to Have Not'

Billy Bragg (English singer/songwriter).

This is one of his early songs.

The chorus has been changed a bit by James Hutchings.

Up in the morning

and out to school

Mother says there'll be no work next year

qualifications were the golden rule

now just pieces of paper.

Just because you're better off than me

doesn't mean that I'm lazy

just because I'm dressed like this

doesn't mean I don't exist

If you look the part

you'll get the job

in last year's trousers and your old school shoes

but they don't tell you

it's a buyers' market

they can afford to pick and choose

Just because you're better off than me

doesn't mean that I'm lazy

just because I'm dressed like this

doesn't mean I don't exist

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 off than me

doesn't mean that I'm lazy

just because I'm dressed like this

doesn't mean I don't exist