The Elves And The Shoemaker

from Ferry Lane EP by Will Riding

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about

First dreamed up in a paper mill in N Wales, I used to turn waste paper and newspaper into toilet rolls. It was a long tedious and dirty job, twelve hour night shifts. Before the bosses and the day shift went home, they'd pile us up with waste paper, when they came back in the morning there would be lots of brand spanking new toilet rolls. It didn't take a massive leap of the imagination to make the comparison with the fairytale…
The first song in my "Footwear Trilogy"

lyrics

We sleep by day; work by night
In the flickering candlelight
Maybe it’s wrong, maybe it’s right
We just make shoes
We just make shoes

Our masters made us a coat so fair
A sop to the blisters and the cuts that we bear
Making them wealthy beyond compare
And still we make shoes
We just make shoes

Hush my children run and play
Your future has been stolen away
They've doubled our quotas; halved our pay
And still we make shoes
We just make shoes

Our masters toast their finest hour
Our allies caved in to the trappings of power
Together they sit in an ivory tower
And still we make shoes
We just make shoes

Same greedy bastards; different name
Vested interests; the name of the game
A class war has started; the poor get the blame
And still we make shoes
We just make shoes

We sleepwalk by day, we’re passive by night
In the flickering candlelight
Our spirit's eroded, gone without fight
And still we make shoes
We just make shoes
© Will Riding

credits

from Ferry Lane EP, released April 29, 2016

license

about

Will Riding Chester

A Lancashire born, Chester based singer-songwriter with a deft and playful turn of phrase and acoustic/folk sensibilities inspired by, amongst other things, 70’s Children’s TV.

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