Union Songs

Sydney Town

A song by Frank Hardy©Frank Hardy 1964

Chorus
The more they try to keep me down
The better I live in Sydney town,
The more they try to keep me down
The better I live in Sydney town.

Great grand-daddy walked along the street with a
ball and chain around his feet
and that's the way they'd like to see me walk
just to give the toffs a chance to talk.

They rob me in the Parliament
They charge me half my pay for rent
They heard I was living on the Rocks
So they pulled it down for building blocks.

The beer's gone up in the public bar
And I can't afford a motor car
But I keep six bottles In the fridge,
And pay no toll on the harbour bridge

The jockies and the bookies cheat,
The odds-on favorites all get beat
So just to show them I'm no fool
I go to Tommo's a Two-up school

They all throw heads when I back tails:
I got no dough to 'bank on the Wales'
But I'll get a job, it'll suit fine
On the Eastern Suburbs railway line.

If I go on strike, I'll have good cause,
Then I'll get hit with a Penal Clause,
But I don't care, let the bosses rage,
I'll fight for a rise in the basic wage.

The monopolies can all arrange
To. rig their shares on the Stock Exchange
Through lottery tickets with my spouse
I've got shares in the Opera House.

They won't lot you win on poker machines
They show rubbish on the T.V. screens
So for entertainment I go for
Australian songs at the Troubador

Notes

Sydney Town was published in Australian Tradition, May 1964 with the note:
This is the original version of Sydney Town as written by me. Folk singers and others who add new verses and variations do so at their own risk. Frank Hardy.

Return to top of page

union songs..........a selection by mark gregory