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Trade's End

from Trade's End by Whistling Treason

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about

I lived on the inland waterways for the best part of 15 years, and it became clear to me over that time that there is something very wrong with their management. There is a poison lurking in the organisations entrusted with maintaining and caring for the canal network, which was carried over from the old British Waterways to the Canal and River Trust. They hate boaters, especially liveaboard boaters, and they want to get rid of them, and have done since at least the 1950s. It's a corporate malaise. This song was written as a response to that, in the voice of a working boater of the fifties or sixties as they see their way of life ending. The number of boaters who'd still like to see the waterways management meet a piratical end, well, let's just say it's not insignificant.

lyrics

Cocoa and dates, bottled beer stacked in crates
Damn all the Waterways Board
Coal by the ton for the old ironworks run
Damn all the Waterways Board
Drop all the paddles, fling wide the gates
Damn all the Waterways Board
There's a cargo to ship and it mustn't be late
Damn all the Waterways Board

Chorus:
Damn'em to hell
Sound out their death knell
For we all can see trouble descending
Hang'em up high
Let the crows peck their eyes
Damn'em to hell, the trade's ending

The bottom's too close to the top we all say
Damn all the Waterways Board
The pound's full of shite and we scour it away
Damn all the Waterways Board
We ne'er got paid proper for our work in the war
Damn all the Waterways Board
Rations, low wages, still we are poor
Damn all the Waterways Board

The trade will be o'er, and the boats will be gone
Damn all the Waterways Board
And now in their place stinking lorries have come
Damn all the Waterways Board
Now the nossers and jossers and noddy boats cruise
Damn all the Waterways Board
They rev and they ram, and they're tanked up with booze
Damn all the Waterways Board

credits

from Trade's End, released February 19, 2024
Composed and written by Whistling Treason

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Whistling Treason Bristol, UK

Dubplate-folk, Soundsystem Trad, Acoustic or Valve Powered, Global Confusion. Whatever I feel like.

As guitarist with RSVP Bhangra and Malarchy, I've played countless major festivals across Britain and Europe, including Glastonbury & Womad.

What started out as a strictly folk project has expanded wildly, to incorporate tunes from around the world, original compositions, and a whole lot of dub. ... more

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