I'm a low pay daddy singing the high price blues

Aginst Th' Law

It´s aginst th´ law to walk, It´s aginst th´ law to talk
It´s against th´ law to loaf, It´s aginst th´ law to work
It´s aginst th´ law to read, It´s aginst th´ law to write
It´s aginst th´ law to be a black or brown or white.
Ever´thing’s aginst th´ law
I´m a low pay daddy singing th´ high price blues

It´s aginst th´ law to eat, It´s aginst th´ law to drink
It´s aginst th´ law to worry, It´s aginst th´ law to think
It´s aginst th´ law to marry or to try to settle down
It´s aginst th´ law to ramble like a bum from town to town

Ever´thing’s aginst th´ law
I´m a low pay daddy singing th´ high price blues

It´s aginst th´ law to come, It´s against th´ law to go
It´s against th´ law to ride, It´s against th´ law to roll
It´s aginst th´ law to hug, It´s against th´ law to kiss
It´s against th´ law to shoot, It´s against th´ law to miss

Ever´thing’s aginst th´ law
I´m a low pay daddy singing th´ high price blues

It´s aginst th´ law to gamble, It´s aginst th´ law to roam
It´s aginst th´ law to organize or try to build a home
It´s aginst th´ law to sing, It´s aginst th´ law to dance
It´s aginst th´ law to tell you th´ trouble on my hands
Ever’thing in Winston Salem is aginst th’ law
I’ma low pay daddy singin’ th’ high price blues.

Words by Woody Guthrie
Music by Billy Bragg



I ordered a Woody Guthrie tribute album called "Til' We Outnumber 'Em" (produced by Ani Difranco and Righteous Babe, and released about ten years ago) and it arrived the other day. I'd heard Billy Bragg do this song on one of the Mermaid Avenue albums, and when I saw him in Victoria a few years ago, but I can't get it out of my head this week. I learned it the other day, and I will definitely play it the next time I perform (which, I think, will be at a festival in Minamata I'm going to with my musician friend Keita at the end of May.) This week I've been singing this song through the halls of my schools, singing it in the staff room, singing it under my breath when a student annoys me, singing it in the grocery store. I guess it must appeal to me here because Japan is a place with so many rules- many that seem rigid and complicated and don't make sense to me- and this song expresses the confusion and frustration I often feel. Billy doesn't have much of a falsetto, but he certainly rocks it on this song.