Come all brother tradesmen that travel alone,
O, pray come and tell me where the trade is all gone,
Long time I have travelled and cannot find none,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Provisions you buy at the shop it is true,
But if you've no money there's none there for you.
So what's a poor man and his family to do?
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
If you go to a shop and you ask for a job
They will answer you there with a shake and a nod.
That's enough to make a poor man to turn out and rob,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
You will see the poor tradesmen a-walking the street
From morning till night for employment to seek.
And scarcely they have any shoes to their feet,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Our soldiers and sailors have just come from war,
Been fighting for their King and their country sure,
Come home to be starved better have stayed where they were,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
So now to conclude and to finish my song
Let us hope that these hard times they will not last long.
And I may soon have occasion to alter my song,
And sing O, the good times of old England,
In old England very good times.
O, pray come and tell me where the trade is all gone,
Long time I have travelled and cannot find none,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Provisions you buy at the shop it is true,
But if you've no money there's none there for you.
So what's a poor man and his family to do?
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
If you go to a shop and you ask for a job
They will answer you there with a shake and a nod.
That's enough to make a poor man to turn out and rob,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
You will see the poor tradesmen a-walking the street
From morning till night for employment to seek.
And scarcely they have any shoes to their feet,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Our soldiers and sailors have just come from war,
Been fighting for their King and their country sure,
Come home to be starved better have stayed where they were,
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
So now to conclude and to finish my song
Let us hope that these hard times they will not last long.
And I may soon have occasion to alter my song,
And sing O, the good times of old England,
In old England very good times.
Contributed by Alessandro - 2009/9/19 - 15:38
Language: English
New version by Billy Bragg
[2007]
Album: The Imagined Village (Various Artists)
"Hard Times of Old England Retold" features the legendary Billy Bragg putting some perspective on the struggle that's faced rural England throughout time, and still continues to today, only amid a different form.
[2007]
Album: The Imagined Village (Various Artists)
"Hard Times of Old England Retold" features the legendary Billy Bragg putting some perspective on the struggle that's faced rural England throughout time, and still continues to today, only amid a different form.
HARD TIMES OF OLD ENGLAND RETOLD
For five generations my family have farmed,
by horse and by tractor, by hoe and by hand,
but that won't stave off the bank's latest demand.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Time was, I could sell what I grew at the shop,
Then Tesco's turned up, all of that had to stop.
Now I can't make a living out of my crop.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
More and more of our village gets sold every day,
To folks from the city who are happy to pay,
For their holiday cottage to stand empty all day
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
The Countryside Alliance expects, I suppose,
My support when they're marching to bloody Blair's nose,
But they said not a word when our post office closed.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
The hedgerows my grandfather tended have gone,
And with them the lapwing and the corncrake's sad song.
I fear I'll be carried off before long.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
And now to conclude and to finish my song;
Let's hope that these hard times they will not last long,
And I may soon have occasion for to alter my song
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
LAST CHORUS: And sing, oh, the good times of old England,
In old England very good times.
For five generations my family have farmed,
by horse and by tractor, by hoe and by hand,
but that won't stave off the bank's latest demand.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
Time was, I could sell what I grew at the shop,
Then Tesco's turned up, all of that had to stop.
Now I can't make a living out of my crop.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
More and more of our village gets sold every day,
To folks from the city who are happy to pay,
For their holiday cottage to stand empty all day
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
The Countryside Alliance expects, I suppose,
My support when they're marching to bloody Blair's nose,
But they said not a word when our post office closed.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
The hedgerows my grandfather tended have gone,
And with them the lapwing and the corncrake's sad song.
I fear I'll be carried off before long.
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
And now to conclude and to finish my song;
Let's hope that these hard times they will not last long,
And I may soon have occasion for to alter my song
Singing, oh, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.
LAST CHORUS: And sing, oh, the good times of old England,
In old England very good times.
Contributed by giorgio - 2009/9/20 - 10:09
The Hard Times of Old England
Now look to the future, how bleakly it bodes
The lorries are choking the ports and the roads
The fish they are rotting, down there in the holds,
Chorus: Sing 'Oh! the hard times of Old England,
In Old England very hard times!’
Our imports and exports are nipped in the bud,
They’re all choked in paper, bogged down in the mud
While all our great leaders are chewing their cud
Our dear old economy's bound for the red
When to distant parts the investors have fled
This whole strategy has a hole in the head
The people in charge should be tearing their hair,
The lorries are clamped and the shelves getting bare
The administration just isn't all there
We’ve got to be real, can’t reach for the moon
But we can’t take a dose if you don’t have a spoon
Because we are ruled by a brainless buffoon
Our great NHS is now feeling the strain
Staff sickness and overload augment the pain,
Our dear government's thrown us all down the drain
Those mercenary fat-cats, how proudly they preen,
Their much-vaunted Brexit now looks so obscene
The next pestilence after Covid-19
I know that 'Remain' has been branded 'Remoan'
But think of those billions already blown:
We gotta protest –can't just sit there and groan
Chorus: Sing 'Oh! the hard times of Old England,
In Old England very hard times.’
Now look to the future, how bleakly it bodes
The lorries are choking the ports and the roads
The fish they are rotting, down there in the holds,
Chorus: Sing 'Oh! the hard times of Old England,
In Old England very hard times!’
Our imports and exports are nipped in the bud,
They’re all choked in paper, bogged down in the mud
While all our great leaders are chewing their cud
Our dear old economy's bound for the red
When to distant parts the investors have fled
This whole strategy has a hole in the head
The people in charge should be tearing their hair,
The lorries are clamped and the shelves getting bare
The administration just isn't all there
We’ve got to be real, can’t reach for the moon
But we can’t take a dose if you don’t have a spoon
Because we are ruled by a brainless buffoon
Our great NHS is now feeling the strain
Staff sickness and overload augment the pain,
Our dear government's thrown us all down the drain
Those mercenary fat-cats, how proudly they preen,
Their much-vaunted Brexit now looks so obscene
The next pestilence after Covid-19
I know that 'Remain' has been branded 'Remoan'
But think of those billions already blown:
We gotta protest –can't just sit there and groan
Chorus: Sing 'Oh! the hard times of Old England,
In Old England very hard times.’
David Russell - 2021/1/22 - 21:36
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Album "Traditional Songs From Rottingdean"
Una canzone risalente al XVIII secolo e ripresa dalla Copper Family, un gruppo di cantori nato alla metà dell'800 su iniziativa dei fratelli James e Thomas Copper che, rinnovandosi di generazione in generazione, tramanda intatte le canzoni più antiche della tradizione inglese.
Tempi duri nella vecchia Inghilterra: chi è rimasto a casa ha perso il lavoro, chi torna dalla guerra non ne trova uno. Per tornare a casa a fare la fame era meglio restare a farsi ammazzare per il Re!
Il brano è stato ripreso anche da Martin Carthy e dagli Steeleye Span.