Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger – Legal / Illegal

Every time you pick up the newspaper
Every time you switch on the TV
You can bet your old boots that at some point you’ll see
A high-ranking copper or else an MP
Calling on all who are British & free
To stand up & defend law & order

It’s illegal to rip off a payroll
It’s illegal to hold up a train
But it’s legal to rip off a million or two
That comes from the labor that other folks do
To plunder the many on behalf of the few
It’s a thing that is perfectly legal

It’s illegal to kill off a landlord
Or to trespass upon his estate
But to change a high rent for a slum is ok
You condemn 2 adults & 3 children to stay
In a hubble that’s rotten with damp & decay
It’s a thing that is perfectly legal

If your job sends you into a sunbeam
It’s legal to fell some despair
But don’t be aggressive that is if you’re smart
Remember the boss has your interest at heart
And it grieves him to see you unhappy

If you fashion a bomb in the kitchen
You’re guilty of breaking the law
But a bloody great nuclear plant is ok
The plutonium processing hastens the day
When this tiny little isle may be blasted away
Nonetheless it is perfectly legal

It’s illegal if you are a g*psy
To camp on the side of the road
But it’s proper & right for the rich & the great
To live in a mansion that no man has paid
It was got from the people by pillage & rape
That’s what they call a tradition

It’s illegal to carve up your misses
Or put poison in your old man’s tea
But poison the rivers, the seas & the sky
And poison the mind of a nation with lies
If it’s done in the interest of free enterprise
Then it’s proper & perfectly legal

It’s legal to join a trade union
And to picket is one of your rights
But don’t be offensive when scabs cross the line
Be nice to the coppers & keep this in mind
To picket effectively that is a crime
Worst than if you had murdered your mother

It’s legal to sing on the telly
But they make bloody sure that you don’t
If you sing about racist & fascist & creeps
And thieves in high places who live off the weak
And those who are selling us right up the creek
The twisters, the takers, the con men, the fakers
The whole bloody damnable exploiters