Project Tag: Topical Songs

You Bastards

By Daniel Kelly – 2020

G                              C  G
I was 18 when I joined the plant, in 1954,
Em            G                        D
To make the FJ Holden, like my father did before,
C                       Em     D          G                    C
We worked our fingers to the bone, on lathe and punch and vice,
       G                D          C      D         G
To build a stronger nation, we gladly paid the price.

         C                 G             C             G
But you sold us out you bastards, pissed us up against the wall,
       C             Em            C             D        G
In the race for power and profit, you have betrayed us all,

The Holdens roared at Bathurst, in 1968,
Mount Panorama’s winding turns, the drivers tempting fate,
A Monaro under Bruce McPhee, victorious on the hill,
Left Fords and Alfas in the dust, the nations cheering still,

The Kingswood was immortalised, on the country’s TV screens,
The car that was Australia, and everything that means,
Our nations heart infused, in glass and steel and chrome,
Symbolic of the culture, to call our very own,

The first nail in the coffin, was invasion by Japan,
1980’s Mitsubishi, conquered with sedan,
When Abott refused to lend and hand in 2013,
Holden’s future in Australia, could only be a dream.

Just a Little Left

by Daniel Kelly 2020

     G                                    D
Just because your gonna vote for Bernie Sanders
     C                                 G
Doesn’t mean that you’re a fan of Mao Zedong,
         G                        C
And believing in fair and living wages,
           D                                G
Doesn’t mean you think that enterprise is wrong.

      C                       Bm          C
A little to the left, just a little to the left,
       G                    D
You only have to move a little to the left,
                 C               Bm         C
The world can be kind and fair,  With just a little care,
          C             D            G
All you have to do is move a little left,

Jeff Bezos doesn’t need 100 billion,
He could probably get by with one or two,
When there are people working who cannot break even,
It seems pretty clear what we should do.

You don’t have to cast your lot with Che Guevara,
Don’t have to tear the whole damn system down,
Trump will tell you that the democrats are commies,
But that’s clearly just the ravings of a clown.

You’re not a traitor if you care about the forest,
Or want to keep the skies and rivers clean,
We can have industry as well as social conscience,
Just ask IKEA they will tell you what I mean,

 

Burned Through

by Daniel Kelly – 2019

C               G          Am                   C
Sifting through the ashes, in this place that was my home,
C                    G               Am                   D
Twisted steel and blackened concrete, all that’s left of what I own
C          G                    C               G
Australian’s we start again, at least that’s what I’ve been told,
C               G               Am              D
But today I won’t be starting, I just feel tired and old,

G               Bm  
Burned through, burned through,
C               G                   Am              D
When that wall of fire came, there was nothing I could do,
C                    G                     C          G
Reach a hand out to your neighbour, find a way to help them through,
C          G                    D
The heart of the country is burned through.

Well tom down the road, he fared better than me,
Lost the shed out the back, and his wife’s favourite tree,
But when I passed him in the street today, he wouldn’t catch my eye,
There is guilt in the survivor, some part that wonders why,

The polies will be here today, with their camera crew behind,
Looking for a hand to shake, they'll get a piece of my mind,
But I’m thankful to the firies, those souls so brave and fine,
Giving up their time, and sometimes lives, to try hold back the fire line

Letters From Hell

By Daniel Kelly

     Am
There are vampires and witches,
     Dm
Zombies, ghouls and ghosts,
Am                 C
the mummy from a pyramid,
G
and skeletons on posts,
Am                                     Dm
But the most terrifying monster, that I have ever seen,
C                Am         G           Am
Is hatred in the heart of a fellow human being,

     Am                           Dm
I’ll tell to you a story, of Halloween not long ago,
Am             C         G
A family in America, a shopping they did go,
Am                           Dm
Decorations for a party, bought from a local store,
C                  Am                 G              E7
Instead of what they bargained for, they got a little more.

Inside there was a letter, from a thousand miles away,
Carefully they opened it, to see what it did say,
Here in China we’re being tortured, forced to work like slaves
In the Masanjia labour camp, where this fake gravestone is made.

We work for 15 hours, each day without a rest,
Taken from our families, starved beaten and oppressed,
I’m here for learning Falun Gong, a good and righteous way,
Please share my message with the world, before I fade away

Sun Yi escaped his prison, the Parties crimes exposed,
A movie shown around the world, now every body knows,
Though Sun Yi reached Indonesia, became a refugee,
The secret service tracked him down, in death he now is free.

 

Hong Kong 2019

A rewording of Phil Ochs song, Knock on the Door

   Dm
In the streets of Hong Kong, in two thousand nineteen
      F                   A
The young and the old protesting have been,
      Dm
They are fighting for freedom, and democracies right
 F                       A
But risking a visit in the dead of the night,
        Dm                 Gm           Dm
With a knock on the door, knock on the door
                   A                  Dm  Dsus2  Dm
Here they come to take one more, one more

In nineteen eighty nine, on Tiananmen
Students asking for freedom were slaughtered then.
Their cry for democracy strangled right there,
When the soldiers and tanks they rolled into the square
Then the knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more, one more

Then came Falun Gong, in nineteen ninety two,
Teaching compassion, with courage so true,
Imprisoned and tortured, their organs sold,
Just one more chapter in a regime so cold,
Another the knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more, one more

In the streets of Hong Kong it’s happening now,
The young the old are refusing to bow,
For five months and more they are protesting still,
Fighting for freedom with unstoppable with will
But they wait for the knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more, one more

(This is Phil's verse)
Look over the oceans, look over the lands
Look over the leaders with the blood on their hands
And open your eyes and see what they do
When they knock for a friend, they're knocking for you
With their knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more
With their knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more, one more

 

Climate Changers

by Daniel Kelly – 2019

G                              C         G
Well you may not believe in climate change,
C                  G               Am               D
But you surely concede that the weather’s been strange.
G                          C             G
The Snow in the Spring as the fires they burn,
C             G             D         G
Hailstones fall and the hurricanes turn.

C                          G
Do something, do something now,
       Am            G
I don’t really care what,
C                    D
And I can’t tell you how,
G                C
The planet she needs us to,
C             G
Turn things around,
C             G             D                 G
Or humanities future, will be dust in the ground

It don’t really count if you share Greta’s tweets,
Or like it when movie stars change what they eat,
It has to be action, that real and concrete,
The kinds that others, will see in the street   

Recycle your garbage, and plant out a tree,
If you’re really excited, you might just plant three
Ride your cycle to work, if it isn’t too far,
To offset the pollution you made in your car.

But don’t get too cocky about things that you’ve done,
Remember that life, is supposed to be fun,
If you use your actions to judge and to shame,
The others you hurt, will not join in our game.

I don’t really think that our house is on fire,
Or that all politicians should be sent to the pyre,
We are all to blame, for our ignorant greed,
Instead of caring together, for our mother in need.

7 Years Old in El Salvador

By Daniel Kelly – 2019 for #AmplifytheChildren

G                    C      G
I was 7 years old in El Salvador, 
C                        G            D
my parents decided that they needed more,
G                       C              G
A safe place to live, to work and to grow
C                  G         D         G
Away from the violence and hunger we know. 

We came to the border, in sight of the land,
We had hoped would accept us, with a welcoming hand,
But soon all our hopes, were dashed to the ground,
Taken from my family, now in prison I’m found.

D                         C                    G
And I wonder what’s going through that guards mind
C                      G         Em            D     
As he threatens and yells, with language unkind
D                    C           G
Doesn’t he have, children of his own?
C                 G           D
Is hate all that he’s ever known?

One day the nurse came, to show us some care,
To brush all the lice from our dirt tangle hair,
She left the comb with us, she could see our need,
The guards demanded we return it, driven by greed.

Oh how they shouted in meaningless rage,
And threatened to take the beds from our cage,
When the comb wasn’t found, our blankets they stole,
We slept on concrete so cold. 

So I tell you my story, and I hope that you’ll hear,
We are children like yours, imprisoned down here.
Would you be so cruel, to one of your own?
On this planet we are together alone.

I am seven years old, in the US of A,
But I don’t feel too lucky, being here today,
I was hoping for freedom, a new life ahead,
Now my parents are gone and I wish I was dead.

Always a Villain

a parody to the tune of Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman

He can win with a smile, and his glazed over eyes.
He can ruin your faith with continual lies.
And he only reveals what he wants you to see.
He cries like a child, and he’s always a villain to me.

Ohhh… he takes care of himself.
Always get’s what he want wants, he’s a man of his time.
Ohhh… and he never looks out,
and he never looks in, he just changes his mind.

He’ll build you a wall, just to comfort your fears,
He’ll lock up the children and laugh at their tears,
See him race baiting, congresswomen three,
You think that he’s strong, but he’s always a villain to me

He’ll promise America, will be great once again,
But never deliver, the swamp’s now a fen,
Cares only for power, will not bend the knee,
He may look like a saviour, but he’s always a villain to me

He’s never been kind, an expert in the cruel,
He does as he pleases, just playing the fool,
He should be convicted, and impeached you’ll agree
That nasty old man will always be a villain to me

Voice Treaty Truth

by Daniel Kelly – 2019

G          D      G
Language keeps us proud,
               C      G       D
It hold’s the spirit of our people,
    Em  D   G            C            G   D
Only 13 now remain, of the hundreds spoken here.
    Em    D      G                     C      G       D
Language gave us voice, it holds the stories of our dreaming,
         C            G            C        D        G
The culture that sustains us, and ties us to the land.

        C      D       G
I will find my voice again,
         C        G            D
I will sing the songs of my people,
         Em       D   G
We will make a treaty now,
           C        G          D
With the ones who took our land,
         Em          D
We will speak the truth,
        G  D   C
With an open heart,
C        D            G            C   D
And find a future shared

Our country was never lost,
Our people never surrendered,
It is occupied land, that you walk upon,
It is time to make amends, to change the constitution,
A treaty signed between us, first people recognised.

The truth is hard to face,
The years of decimation,
Of our people and our land, the culture you erased,
The souls you ground to dust, the children who were taken
We must stare it in the eye, no turning from the past

Pillars of Democracy

by Daniel Kelly - 2019

C                          G             D
They’re chipping at the pillars of democracy,
C                      G           D                         
Freedom falls in the name of security,
       Am                   Em       C                  G
By the chisel and the jackhammer, watch them as they fall,
C                G          D                G
Soon to be the cage that will surround us all.
              C             Em     D
Open your eyes and stand up for democracy.
              C             G      D
Don’t let the lies, destroy our democracy

       Em                                D            
On the 5th of June in Sydney town, the men in suits they came,
Am                   G                    D
Tasked to re-write history, hide the evidence and blame.
C                 G                D               G
Freedom of the press, is a rock on which we stand,
C                          G                 D
Now the fear and anger spreads across the land.

This wasn’t about saving lives, the horse had left the gate,
To keep this story under wraps, it clearly was too late,
This was only retribution, to intimidate the press,
Uncover crimes of the government, you’ll be in a mess,

This house of our democracy, is built on four strong towers,
Justice and Equity, the right to elect power,
The fourth it is our freedom, to hear and speak what’s true,
Even when it is uncomfortable for the few

This wasn’t the first occurrence, ask Bernard and Witness K,
They’d come from raiding Annika, just the other day,
It’s nothing to do with me says the Prime Minister,
But the truth is something for more sinister,

Finch in the Coal Mine


by Daniel Kelly - 2019

Em                                D
Here’s a story of Adani, and of Clive Palmer to,
           G                 D                    C     D       Em
How they promise jobs with better pay, but don’t care much for you,
All the profits will go overseas, or to the pockets of the few
Don’t pretend that you are helpless, There is much that you can do.

I am the finch in the coal mine, the symbol of despair,
Victim of a greedy age, the sweet prince of the air,
Don’t fail to heed my warning, Let’s shut the miners down,
Look to a cleaner future, Leave that poison in the ground,

They want to build a mine in Queensland, that will desecrate the home,
Of the last remaining black throat finch, leaving naught but broken stone,
They say the bird’s just a small price to pay, for our profits and our greed,
Who cares about their habitat, when we have mouths to feed.

Just like that poor canary, the finch is but a sign,
That with it’s sad departure, something worse comes down the line,
When you don’t respect the planet, and destroy it for your greed,
There will be nothing left to help you, come your hour of need.

 

Democracy Sausage


by Daniel Kelly 2019

G          C                          G          Em
It’s the sausage of democracy, the symbol of or land
     C               Am             G        D
Handed out at each election, by a dedicated hand.
C                    D               G               C
You can keep your revolution, and your president so grand,
D          C          D          G
By the sausage of democracy we stand.

G                                          C               G
Well the two main parties standing, they are pretty much the same,
C                          G               Am              D
Neither cares for the refugees, or believes in climate change,
C                               D               G          C
They’ve been knifing each other in the back, for near on 20 years,
C               D               G
Our democracy it just might end in tears

We’ve got fascists, we’ve got racists, and the peddlers of hate,
You can buy yourself a party, for 60 million mate,
There are people placed in power, by less than twenty votes,
Could be better governed by a herd of goats.

So when you’re standing in the queue, munching on your snag,
Just remember that while voting, might seem to be a drag,
You could be running from the allied bombs, in Baghdad or Baghouz
So do your part, what have you got to lose?

Suffer the Children

By Daniel Kelly - 2019

Am          G                 Am
The game is up, you’re now exposed,
     C          G      Am        G
What once was hidden, everyone knows,
Am               G        C           G
For years you sheltered, behind the robes,
Am              G                Am
Where there is power, sickness grows.

G             Am      C             G
Suffer the children, Suffer the children
C               G         Am            D
The suffering children, abused by your hand,
G                  Am          C          G
The chapels and cloisters, so finely constructed,
C           G                Am       D
The elegant robes, and the arrogant words.
        G         Am
We’re sick of your words

Behind the golden palace walls,
In cloister where the violence crawls,
The putrid heart, in pious song,
A thin veneer on deepest wrong,

The children young and full of life,
Entrusted to your keeping,
Hurt in cruel and violent ways,
You thought that god was sleeping,

Years of shame and anger heaped on,
Those who dare to call you wrong,
But now they day of payment comes,
Small justice for the injured ones.

Water Don’t Flow

by Daniel Kelly – 2019

When the water doesn’t flow

G                   D          C             G
The great Darling river, she starts in the north
C                  G                 D
From the south Queensland ranges, bursting forth,
G                     D     C         G
She once flowed so freely, over the land,
C               G              Am       D                 
Feeding and shaping, with her powerful hand.

        C      G           D
But when the water don’t flow,
Am                     G        D
It’s then that you’ll come to know,
           C              G
That you can’t drink the gold,
      D             G
You stole for her soul,
Am                        G
And there’s death in the river,
       D         G
That ceases to flow.

Well you start to dam her, controlling her flow,
Polluted her catchments to make the crops grow,
At Lake Alexandrina it’s easy to see,
There’s nothing left, to flow into the sea. 

A million dead fish, in Menindee town,
Water that’s putrid, lifeless and brown,
The sad consequences, of years of abuse,
No respect for the land or its use

The water will flow, in a thousand years time,
When humanity fails, trapped in our grime,
The fish and the marshlands, will flourish again,
As nature recovers, from the violence of men.

Yass Water

By Daniel Kelly – 2019

G
Here’s a story I will tell,
     C               G
One Yass residents know well,
     G                               D
One of the dirty little secrets of our town,
G
Turn the tap on at your sink,
     C                  G
You’ll be greeted by a stink,
G                    D               G
And a colour ranging from urine to brown.

C               G
Yass water, Yass water,
G                                         D
I’m sick of bathing in and cleaning with Yass Water,
G
All my clothes are turning brown,
C
A sickly odour to the town,
G                    D                   G
It’s well past time to clean up this Yass Water.

Well the smell’s hard to define,
Between mouldy socks and slime,
And the colour will just make your stomach turn,
Not fit to bath your kids,
Or boil up your squids,
And you better like wearing dirty brown,

There are some who don’t complain,
“We’re lucky to have water at all”, they explain,
But this here is the 21st century,
I pay $400 bucks a year,
To have this swill delivered here,
plus a dollar for each thousand gallons used.

A proper treatment plant,
The council says it can’t,
$11 million is too hard to find,
Just glad I have a rain tank,
Don’t have to drink that stank,
But it’s time the people stood up for themselves.

 

Toxic Masculinity

based on the Gilbert and Sullivan classic from The Pirates of Penzance, The Modern Major General.

[D] I am the very model of a toxic masculinity
[A] I've never thought to question all the rights that are bestowed on me,
[D] I know that women’s place is in the kitchen making sandwiches
[A]And that they never have the right to [E7] reject my [A] advancies
[A7] I'm very well acquainted, too, with violence and [Dm]misogyny,
[C7]If I don’t get my way you’ll feel the force of my [F]authority,
[A7]About the rights of men I am just teeming with a [Dm]lot o' news
[Bb7]And really hate those feminists with crazy and [A]extremist views,

[A] He really hates those feminists with crazy and extremist views! x3 – [B7] [C#]

[D] I'm very good at justifying all of my behaviours though,
[A] By blaming all the women that dare challenge my big egio,
[D] In short, in matters [A7] of respect, [D] compassion and [A7]integrity,
[D] I am the very [G] model [Em] of a [D]toxic [A7] mascu [D] linity

In short, in matters of respect, compassion and integrity,
He is the very model of a toxic masculinity

I teach children that I have to grow up just the way I did,
To never cry or care and beat the heck out of the other kid,
I quote Milo Yiannopolous and other men’s right activists,
Because I’m scared that women will soon see I’m a misogynist,
I can tell you of the victims of many a wild feminist,
Of how a women was promoted first and instead I was missed,
I’m known on the chatrooms, reddit, 4chan and the twittersphere,
And if I see a woman post I’ll spew my vile hatefilled smear

And if he sees a woman post he’ll spew his vile hatefilled smear! x 3

Then I can write a Facebook post establishing my manliness
And tell you of the women I assaulted with my handiness
In short, in matters of respect, compassion and integrity,
I am the very model of a toxic masculinity

In short, in matters of respect, compassion and integrity,
He is the very model of a toxic masculinity

In fact, when I know what is meant by chad, ghosting and gaslighting
When I can tell at sight the cover of a hustler magazine
When such affairs as laund-r-y and cleaning I’m more wary at
But then I know how good I look when wearing my new MAGA hat
When I have learnt what progress all the modern feminists have brought,
Like voting, workers rights and equal standing in the family court,
In short, it makes me furious that all my rights have gone away
I wish we could go back to when as a man I ruled the day

He wishes he could go back to when as a man he ruled the day ! x3

But if you suggest I should change I’ll respond quite hysterically,
How dare you question my behaviour, not all men are bad you see
For still, in matters of respect, compassion and integrity,
I am the very model of a toxic masculinity
But still in matters of respect, compassion and integrity,
He is the very model of a toxic masculinity

 

Respect for Confucius

   Em                           G          D
I taught virtue and truth, to a China in strife,
     Em            D            Em   D    Em
I struggled with violence, for all of my life.

Em              G          D        Em
For two thousand years, my legacy spread,
           G          D               Em   D    Em
Bringing honour and goodness to the lives people led

G               D          Em                              D
In my name, In my name, You spread hatred and blame in my name
Em                   D          Em
Bringing sorrow and shame to my name

The communist scourge, in nineteen forty nine,
Came to trample my precepts and erase me from mind.
So I find it absurd, that in two thousand and four,
They hijacked my name, to propagate their war

Every thing they stand for, is an insult to me,
They hate tradition and truth, and they despise the free
Confucius indeed, my name drew respect,
But in China today, it speaks of neglect, 

Children sings songs of Mao, and the Communist State,
A despot a tyrant, who wrote a murderous fate.
We pretend to teach language, but spread hateful ideas,
While Tibet and Xinjiang, are still drowning in tears

Let Me In

by Daniel Kelly - 2015

G                                                   C                      G
I’m writing you from fair Manus Island
                           G                                     C                    G
Where it’s hot and we don’t have much to do
                   G                     D
Hanging on to a dream
                C                                 G
That one day we might be,
                   G                         D                        G                 C G
On the free sunny shores of Australia

                                 G                        D                          C                      G
Please Let me in, let me go, let me make myself a home
                Em                              G                         D
Let me heal from the pain and the fear
                    G                                D
I’m a person just like you,
                     C                      G
With dreams and family too
                  C                              D             G
A fair go is all that I ask of you

I’m not coming to sell you my religion
Religion’s what I’m mostly running from
I just want to be free, To live in safety
In a country that is free from oppression

Your government’s been painting us with terror
Something to be caged and beaten down
We are people just like you
And we thought that it was true
That your boundless plains were there for the sharing

                     D (just this verse)
The locals here are kind, they only beat us sometimes,
We’re doing all we can to hold on,
But the mind’s a fragile thing
And our hope is dwindling
Please don’t stand by this cruel incarceration

 

Fake King of New England


Parody of The Phony King Of England from 
Disney's Robin Hood (1973) written by  Johnny Mercer

Oh the world will sing of an American King, A thousand years from now,
And not because he posted tweets, Or had a furrowed brow.
While bonny good King Obama leads, The great crusade he's on,
We'll all have to slave away, For that good-for-nothin' Don!

Incredible as he is inept,    Whenever the history books are kept,
They'll call him the fake king of New England.
Let impeach the fake king of New England!

He sits alone on a giant throne,    Pretendin' he's the king,
A little tyke who's rather like, A puppet on a string,  
And he throws an angry tantrum,  if he cannot have his way...

He calls on Vlad, and Kim Jong Un.
And says he wants to play.

Too late to be known as Don the First, 
He's sure to be known as Don the worst,
Let impeach the fake king of New England!

While he taxes us to pieces         And he robs us of our bread,
Obama’s crown keeps slippin' down   Around that orange head,
Ah! But while there is a merry man, in Bernie's wily pack,
We'll find a way to make him pay, And steal our freedom back.

A minute before he knows we're there...
Ol' Bernie'll mess his  coiffured hair!
The very stable genius of New  England,

The braggin', grabbin', Lying, spying, Blabberin', jabberin',
Cheatin', Tweetin',     Blunderin', plunderin', Wheelin', dealin',
Prince Don, that fake king of New England,

Look Away

G                               C                  G
Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
C                          G        C           Am         D
I’ll put them in cages at Walmart, never their parents to see.
  G                            C              D        G
Offer no comfort or caring; accuse them of fanciful crimes,
C                   G          C          Am        D
What happened to America? I can’t understand these times.

Dictators and despots are welcome, to sit at the table with me,
On the graves of a million bodies, I’ll shake their hands with glee,
I’ll ridicule friends and allies, born in a hundred wars,
Wipe my feet on their allegiance; replace them with bandits and whores,

G              D         C             G                            
Look away, Look away, I mustn’t look away.
C                                G
Though it tears at my soul and body,
C                        D            
And I wish for an end today.
G                                 D
I will sing of the truth and the horror,
C                       G
While I have a voice to sing
C                   G
Hope for a better tomorrow,
C                   D       G
When the bells of freedom ring

By the golden door, Liberty still stands,
A light in the face of the lost, the shines across the lands,
With the trappings of democracy crumbled, We are yet to discover the cost.
With the rights of women trampled, belief and hope are lost.

In a land without truth and compassion, There are tragedies still to unfold,
How much more can our hearts whither, Is there no end to the hatred and cold
But I’ve seen hope the horizon, she is waiting by the shore,
To hear our voices cry freedom, and abandon hate once more