No Gods and Precious Few Heroes - Dick Gaughan video free download


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Duration: 04:17
Uploaded: 2011/01/03

Dick Gaughan singing 'No Gods and Precious Few Heroes' which was written by Brian McNeill (of Battlefield Band fame).

I was listening to the news the other day

I heard a fat politician who had the nerve to say

He was proud to be Scottish, by the way

With the glories of our past to remember

"Here's tae us, wha's like us", listen to the cry

No surrender to the truth and here's the reason why

The power and the glory's just another bloody lie

They use to keep us all in line

For there's no gods and there's precious few heroes

But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal

And it's time now to sweep the future clear

Of the lies of a past that we know was never real

Farewell to the heather in the glen

They cleared us off once and they'd do it all again

For they still prefer sheep to thinking men

Ah, but men who think like sheep are even better

There's nothing much to choose between the old laird and the new

They still don't give a damn for the likes of me and you

Just mind you pay your rent to the factor when it's due

And mind your bloody manners when you pay!

And tell me will we never hear the end

Of puir bluidy Charlie at Culloden yet again?

Though he ran like a rabbit down the glen

Leavin better folk than him to be butchered

Or are you sittin in your Council house, dreamin o your clan?

Waiting for the Jacobites to come and free the land?

Try going down the broo with your claymore in your hand

And count all the Princes in the queue!

So don't talk to me of Scotland the Brave

For if we don't fight soon there'll be nothing left to save

Or would you rather stand and watch them dig your grave

While you wait for the Tartan Messiah?

He'll lead us to the Promised Land with laughter in his eye

We'll all live on the oil and the whisky by and by

Free heavy beer! Pie suppers in the sky! -

Will we never have the sense to learn?

That there's no gods and there's precious few heroes

But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal

And I'm damned sure that there's plenty live in fear

Of the day we stand together with our shoulders at the wheel

Aye there's no Gods

Comments

9 years ago

Micheal Carney

While I personally don;t care for the atheistic tones (though the no gods part may be metaphorical) I like the honesty with which he addresses the people's beliefs on how their freedom will come and it really speaks to me in how many different situations this is the truth in.

9 years ago

t6a9m

Q.Do you want an Independent Scotland?Sorry. I really don't see how you could put it more"clearly".

9 years ago

Diego Delgado

Vote Aye!

9 years ago

bella dorset

Well said.

9 years ago

DonegalRaymie201

"Free Heavy Beer, pie-suppers in the sky.....will we ever have the sense to learn??"The lyrics of this song are classic poetry, ffs!

9 years ago

Sandy Batchelor

Belter of a song. Clever, interesting, bleak. I'm a socialist and a yes voter but this certainly doesn't feel like and indy song. Sounds like he's singing for more than that, but maybe only possible out of independence...

9 years ago

t6a9m

Dick. Gaughn-y no.

10 years ago

Rachel Schofield

Good song. The only way for Scotland to break free from Tory rule is to vote for independence.

10 years ago

whalefsh

+theawecabinet Aye, because it's the EU shutting community centres, or getting folk turfed out the houses because of the bedroom tax...

10 years ago

ian duncan

I've always loved this song, though I am no Socialist. Both ironic, sceptical and scathing all at the same time. Burns of the modern era.The "referendum".........."you either believe Scotland is a sovereign country or you don't"..........I do, hence it will be a yes from me.the detail and wrangling afterwards to me will be irrelevant, can we afford it etc.? I don't give a stuff. it will take 20 plus years to sort out and I'll be gone....this is the first and only time ALL the people of scotland have had a vote on this. There was no vote in 1707 and I don't count the contrived Scottish assembly vote of 1979....this is the first time everybody has a say.....aye or nay.it will be a vote aye from me....for the coming generations and to right the wrong of 300 years ago. a treaty signed by greedy and self serving politicians in an attempt to line their own pockets..any different today?....once independant we want less governement not more!.....remember......"Scotland will flourish, by the sweat of our labourThe strength of her will, and the force of her mindForget the old battles, those days are overHatred corrupts, and friendship refines"

10 years ago

Binnie Bob

Joe Hill reference anyone?

10 years ago

theawecabinet

(cont) But they STILL can't get the UK to embrace EU... (which is why they won't allow a referendum on the EU) ... so they've decided the only way is to break up the UK into smaller chunks and conquer those chunks separately. It's classic 'divide and conquer' strategy. Once Scotland is 'independent' it will be easier to force it into the EU because the economy cannot sustain itself on its own. After Scotland is conquered England will be next... meanwhile the people keep watching X factor...

10 years ago

theawecabinet

If you use the phrase "Scottish Independence" in any debate (arguing from any 'side') then you've already lost. Nearly all laws & regulations come from the EU now. Even Barroso called the EU "the new Roman Empire". He laughed that it has been created without a single shot being fired. These days western countries are taken over NOT by tanks and guns, but by taking over their governments/ media and bombarding the citizens with propaganda. But they STILL can't get the UK to embrace EU... (cont)

10 years ago

moominpic

Dick Gaughan is not anti-independence; he's against Scotland forever blaming England and dreaming of a golden age which didn't exist. He's against measuring Scottishness by anti Englishness and he's a socialist, so he's against a ruling class (fat Tory politicians)

10 years ago

moominpic

...kicked the crap out of us at Culloden". But people still harp on about it as if the one victory defines the rest of what followed. Culloden... a Polish/Italian who wanted the crown of England... it wasn't Scotland vs England, as a substantial amount of jacobites were English and Crown Forces were made up of large amounts of Scots, yet people still dream of the jacobites returning (despite them being catholic, who many Scots would abhore!)...

10 years ago

moominpic

"Sweeping away the lies of the past" refers to the fact that certain events of Scottish history have been glamorised and reshaped to suit certain political ideologies. They've also been used to keep ideas of independence as a romantic dream. Take Bannockburn, it was a battle between feudal lords. Think of "Flower of Scotland" which says "We sent them hameward, tae think again". How often have you heard people say it? Billy Connely commented, "They went hame, thought about it and then came and...

10 years ago

tartan marvel

you unionists like to warp every thing to fit your warped world view this song is for independence p.s. i must ask are you english or just a tratior to your people

10 years ago

tartan marvel

dicks right we will build a scotland for people not the lairds and their english masters

10 years ago

MarvellousMuffin

Gaughan and MacNeil would seek independence for the sake of social justice - "there's mony on the dole in the land o' the leal" - but our damned national trait of "loyalty" is a curse that we must fight against. MacNeil expresses similar attitudes in his song about the Duke of Montrose, and how he gave his life for loyalty to little avail.

10 years ago

MarvellousMuffin

You can be a supporter of independence without supporting the SNP or Alex Salmond, something you still need to get into your skull. Dick Gaughan himself is a self proclaimed Scottish Nationalist, as well as a Marxist, justifying it by saying "in order to be an internationalist you have to be a nationalist, because how can you be proud of who everyone else is without being proud of yourself?"

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