Labour & Pop Culture: Get Back in Line

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Get Back in Line” by the Kinks. This song is from 1970 and speaks to the experience of going to the labour exchange and hoping to be selected for work. The Kinks note that “Facing the world ain’t easy when there isn’t anything going.”

The high unemployment and deeply entrenched class system of Britain in the 1950s and 60s left many workers powerless and vulnerable to chance and the whim of others. The singer notes that

'Cos when I see that union man walking down the street
He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line

The result is a deep sense of shame and emasculation:

But all I want to do is make some money
And bring you home some wine
For I don't ever want you to see me
Standing in that line

The melancholy melody mirrors the lyrics. One possible outcome of a system that gives many workers little left to lose is radical politics and trade unionism.



Facing the world ain't easy when there isn't anything going
Standing at the corner waiting watching time go by
Will I go to work today or shall I bide my time
'Cos when I see that union man walking down the street

He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line
Now I think of what my mamma told me

She always said that it would never ever work out
But all I want to do is make some money
And bring you home some wine
For I don't ever want you to see me
Standing in that line

Cause that union man's got such a hold over me
He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line

-- Bob Barnetson