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Fish and chips

by John Lewis Smith

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about

This track provides a socio-economic analysis of fish n chips, the traditional English take-away food

lyrics

Fish and chips: Words and music by John Lewis Smith
Copyright Lewis Music (1982) ISRC GBGHU03006)

Chorus:
All I asked for was a bag of fish and chips
All I asked for was a bag of fish and chips
Do you want 'em wrapped or open?
Salt and vinegar is free

Verse 1.
Well, the chippy buys a large sack of spuds
Which he turns into a multitude of chips
He sells them by the bag and he makes a little profit
It isn't very much it doesn't put us out of pocket
Then he gives the wholesale merchant what he owes him on account
It helps to pay the mortgage on the chief accountant's house
A very solid property that stands in its own grounds ... Chorus

Verse 2.
While the chips are gently frying in the fat
I try to understand the economic fat
The cost of the potato finds its way back to the farmer
The farmer's not that rich he does't live in the Bahamas
But he's got enought to give his kids a private education
Paid for by the agricultural workers' exploitation
And all the people queueing up for chips across the land ... Chorus

Verse 3.
Got my supper wrapped up in the daily paper
It'll keep it warm until I eat it later
I glance down at the picture it's the woman on page 3
And I wonder if she's also having fish and chips for tea
And I wonder at the price we pay for all this titillation
The trees we chop down just to fuel this mental masturbation
And the attitude to women that it constantly maintains ... Chorus

Verse 4.
We're all sitting by the fireside with a cuppa
Watching telly, eating fish and chips for supper
It's best to be at home in all this bitter winter weather
It's snowing and it's cold and now the wind is getting fresher
While the skipper of a trawler takes his boat out in the storm
And a village on the Scottish coast again prepares to mourn
He has to go to sea to pay the interest on his loan... Chorus.

credits

released April 1, 2010
Written and performed by John Lewis Smith 1982

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