Friday Tunes: Won't Get Fooled Again

With a tip of the hat to Alberta's new premier and his recycled austerity agenda, this week's installment of labour themes in popular culture is the The Who's 1971 classic Won't Get Fooled Again. I picked an acoustic version so you can hear the lyrics some. Although I have grown to loathe this song, I picked it because of the closing lyrics ("Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss"): this was my first thought when I heard Prentice announce MLA wage rollbacks.

Pete Townsend (who wrote the song) has a complicated (and, frankly, tedious) explanation of the song he has posted online. But let's just look at what the lyrics suggest about power. The song is deeply cynical about the prospects for meaningful change despite assertions of revolution ("There's nothing in the streets/Looks any different to me"). This seems profoundly true in Alberta where the political faces change but public policy (privileging corporations) remains stuck in 1980.

You can also read the song to reveal concern about the collateral damage caused by so-called reforms. ("I'll move myself and my family aside/If we happen to be left half alive"). The prospect of a repeat of Ralph Klein's austerity package (e.g., remember the decade-long nursing shortage after they all left?) makes me hopeful voters won't get fooled again.



We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

-- Bob Barnetson