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about

This is the Radio Edit for the Ballad of Slim MacInnis.

Source material: 'Dosco's Inferno' (1943), by John J. 'Slim MacInnis

NOTE: 'Dosco' was the local colloquial name for the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (1928-1968) of Cape Breton NS Canada, and has no relation to any other company past or present operating anywhere in the world under the name DOSCO.

lyrics

Oh, tired I am of this ceaseless toil
The endless cares and woes
Paupered years, and deathless fears
That a low paid worker knows.
My toil filled life is fraught with strife
And all that I have to show
Are these callused palms, workworn hands
And a feeling I'm dying slow.

From early youth like a broken tooth
In a Godless way I've slaved,
In 's mills where the labour kills
And hastens early graves.
Well I shovel ore thru a furnace door
In the heat of the boiling steel
Where the stink and glare of the poisoned air
Is a hellish thing to feel.

And it's 123baby woe is me
I'm working' at the Dosco mill
I love my girl and all the boys in the shop
and the rest can go to hell

I've grown so sick of the look of the brick
And the paddles, tongs and pails
And the mud and the mire and Mclntyre
And the flame that never fails.
The checkers so hot and Foreman Watt
And Ritchie who just stands there
Like a Simon Legree be seems to me
With a cruel and crafty stare.

And it's 123baby woe is me
I'm working' at the Dosco mill
I love my girl and all the boys in the shop
and the rest can go to hell

The charging cars and the hammer and bars
And the smoke of the metal trains
The ladles and the pans and the barrows and fans
And the screech of the hoisting cranes.
Oh! weary am I of the few who try
To scab and pamper the boss
Confidential men and those who pretend
Concern for production lost

And it's 123baby woe is me
I'm working' at the Dosco mill
I love my girl and all the boys in the shop
and the rest can go to hell

For the many must work for the few who shirk
The high paid few who prize
The money and ease and the luxuries
Of private enterprise.
Goddamned hypocrites who rack their wits
And worry and scheme and plan
For a christian way to lower the pay
Of the honest working man.

credits

from On the River Off the Lake, track released April 13, 2016

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Kev Corbett Halifax, Nova Scotia

“The man is an exceptional guitar player – for one thing – but also writes extremely clever, finessed, clockwork folk-pop songs whose singable surface belies a tremendous underlying sense of craft. It was really great to see him again.” – Jowi Taylor, Six String Nation

“Well-crafted, skillfully written songs, dazzling guitar playing. Son of a Rudderless Boat is a marvelous listen.” – Penguin Eggs
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