Friday, March 3, 2017

Labour & Pop Culture: BankRobber

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Bankrobber” by The Clash. This reggae song that meanders quite a lot (which is why the song seems so much longer than it really is).

I think the crux of the song is that employment is a class system (“some is rich, and some is poor/that's the way the world is”). And the result of the system is alienation for most workers:
the old man spoke up in a bar
said i never been in prison
a lifetime serving one machine
is ten times worse than prison
Not surprisingly, some folks don’t willingly go along with this arrangement, given that life is short:
someday you'll meet your rocking chair
cos that's where we're spinning
there's no point to wanna comb your hair
when it's grey and thinning
Consequently, we should seek to understand the structural roots of so-called deviant behaviour, such a bankrobbing. I picked a more contemporary cover of the song for the video because I can’t deal with The Clash’s vocals.



[CHORUS]
my daddy was a bankrobber
but he never hurt nobody
he just loved to live that way
and he loved to steal your money

some is rich, and some is poor
that's the way the world is
but i don't believe in lying back
sayin' how bad your luck is

so we came to jazz it up
we never loved a shovel
break your back to earn your pay
an' don't forget to grovel

[CHORUS]

the old man spoke up in a bar
said i never been in prison
a lifetime serving one machine
is ten times worse than prison

imagine if all the boys in jail
could get out now together
whadda you think they'd want to say to us?
while we was being clever

someday you'll meet your rocking chair
cos that's where we're spinning
there's no point to wanna comb your hair
when it's grey and thinning

[CHORUS]

so we came to jazz it up
we never loved a shovel
break your back to earn your pay
an' don't forget to grovel

Get away, get away, get away, get away

[CHORUS]

run rabbit run
strike out boys, for the hills
i can find that hole in the wall
and i know that they never will

-- Bob Barnetson

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