Dutiful Servants And Political Masters Lyrics - Chumbawamba

One, two, one, two, three, four 

Things were rather different in great grandfather's day 

He just put a chain around their ankles and made them work for no pay 

He took everything they owned and yet still demanded more 

He did a bloody good job in taming the poor 

Now I'm rather more subtle, I say, I'll tell you what I will do 

I'll do everything I can to try and help you 

And you'll be helping me, I say, and I'll see that you're alright 

You can have a place of your own, you can even pretend to be white 

And you won't have to worry, I'll have a quiet word with your mates 

Oh they'll be alright, they'll have enough on their plate 

I'll put a bit in their mouths, you just pull hard on the reins 

They'll do anything for you and they won't complain 

You'll be so much better off, I say, you can share my paradise 

Just sign my piece of paper and I'll organize your life 

And it never fails, it does the trick, it works every time 

So me and my dear wife and the family's doing fine 

Great granddad got his dukedom when slavery was abolished 

Dear old dad became a viscount when the Empire was finished 

But times have changed for the better with freedom of choice 

We're a thousand times richer, QED His Master's Voice 

A dog stares into a gramophone trumpet, waits for its call to action 

Mute and obedient, standing to attention 

Look a little closer, the dog is a woman 

She's working under a system that she can't understand 

Trapped inside a world of labor and heat 

So that she and her children will be able to eat 

The trumpet is patriarchy, it's old and fixed 

Where poor men are lured by desire to be rich 

Where the limited power is still given to men 

Where development aid is so wastefully spent 

Where western education enforces this crap 

Where women work in the open, yet live in a trap 

There's one solution, and this is it 

The dog leaps on the gramophone and has a shit