Richard Thompson

Sweetheart on the barricade

Richard Thompson


They closed up the sooty gates of Ayres and Company 
We stood on the picket line, my Jennifer and me 
We blocked the street, now the lorries come and turn about 
There's nothing getting in there and there's nothing getting out 

Oh, she's just a tender thing 
She's risking life and limb 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 
My heart it skips a beat 
There'll be fighting in the street 
But hungry folk forget to be afraid 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 

And here come the managers to hit us on the sly 
And tinpot generals with glory in their eyes 
Owners, moaners, Judases and Janes 
But righteousness is in our eyes, we've got no time for games 

In her manner she is mild 
And fairly just a child 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 
For a fair wage in her hand 
The equal of a man 
She'll stand front rank in the parade 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 

She's running leaflets through the alley 
She's passing hymn books at the rally 
Halleluiah! 

Friends and neighbours, won't you join the cause 
Drill it in the tiny minds of them that make the laws 
That workers are human, we're really just the same 
We've got to have the nourishment to fill a human frame 

Oh, we're people not a mob 
And we only wants a job 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 
We've had it up to here 
Too numb to feel the fear 
My sweetheart's on the barricade 
My heart it skips a beat 
There'll be fighting in the street 
My sweetheart's on the barricade