RUFTY TUFTY WORK SONGS OF LIFE ON THE ROAD

Being a horny handed son of toil and a muscle bound donkey strangling hunk of a district councillor, Red Smed has dug deep into his archives and come up with a couple of modern day work songs recollecting his hi-octane life on the roads , pavements and soft grass verges  that IS van driving.

In the depths of Thatcherite repression, Smed worked for the evil Multinational parcel delivering mega-corporation 'Multifreight'. For 13 weeks then was sacked. Ostensibly for wearing IRA badges while delivering to a nuclear power station. Since blown up. 

Smed recalls "I was delivering to Oldbury in Gloucestershire and my mate Dave had bought me a James Connolly badge for my birthday but this eagle eyed security guard spotted it and imediatly realised that my plan was to occupy Stroud Post Office and declare independence for Wessex launching our new fledgling Socialist Republic   in the blood of her martyrs."

Dave, a bastard, remembers it differently. "I just wanted to get him sacked".

Ignoring plain facts, Smed continues, "With 'Multifreight' the tune is lifted from an IWW song about hauling timber somewhere in America that I read about on my mothers knee. She used to write political history on her knees with a felt pen. It may seem odd now , but most of the family did that. But this was in the days before computers, books and television. Lyrically the people are real but I've kept their names instead of making them up so that they can track me down and beat me up".

Having been sacked from Multifreight, Smed couldn't get work for 2 years in the Haulage industry as he was blacklisted by the 'Economic League' who had him down as a 'raving communist' and 'a bit of a twat', however, after changing his CV hobbies and interests to 'Liking Margaret  Thatcher' and 'Thinking of ways to maximise the profits of hard working bosses' he got a job at NJ Singletons where he was the sole workforce under 2 bosses. "This seemed an odd arrangement" Smed ponders    " as their day seemed to finish at 9am and then I did all the work for the rest of the day. But I was just glad to have a job, especially one so important to the health and well being of the Nation as delivering plastic plumbing pipes , vanity units and toilet seats. Without me what would the arseholes of the Nation do!!"

The song 'Bonny Van Driver' tells of Smed's near death driving escapades working for Singletons, and the transport cafes he was compelled to use several times a day. The song is based on a Scottish coalmining song  and is naturally sung in a ridiculous Scottish accent "..to emphasise the horror Dick Gaughan would feel if he ever heard it."

"One of the features of this song is the authentic bagpipe playing in it. The entire Highbridge Bagpipe and Communism Collective  managed to fit into Monkton Heathfield studio, but I was so appalled by the averageness of their performance that I overdubbed them on my melodica. So that's another thing that Sooty can stick up his arse."

'The Internationale' out on 'You Tube' for Easter

In a cynical attempt to try to get as many you tube hits as his version of 'The Partisan Song' (currently on 300,000) Red Smed has now put up his 30th you tube link to a former recording by one of his shit bands.

"This time it's that old classic 'The Internationale' " said Red Smed , taking a break from overthrowing capitalism to buy some jaffa cakes from Lidls.."a song which of course has been sung by Stalinists and Trotskyists alike with absolutely no sense of irony or unity. I thought maybe Ed Milliband would like to try it."

Smed had noticed that 'the Partisan Song' has received so many you tube hits "probably because people are looking for a different version and stumble on this one by accident. So by picking an equally famous song i reckon people will probably do the same."

A totally irrelevent photo of  Red Smed in a scene from a
not connected play back in the pointless 1980s 

The song was recorded at the Monkton Heathfield studios in  2002 and features Smed as both Hank Marvin  AND Jet Harris, reprising the verse melody on lead guitar and then on echo laden 6-string bass. The chorus was sung by Elaine Di Campo in 3 part harmony. Smed says "Sadly when the guy mixed it down he had never heard the original 'Internationale' and so didn't know which of the 3 melodies was the lead...and so got the wrong one. That may be why some people won't recognise it."