I
wrote this in 1968 at 17 but rewrote it 1978 after reading feminist writers
like Juliet Mitchell, Sheila Rowbothem and more. Being a single parent,
it comes close to home now! I did this briefly with a Coventry band in 1980 - a Pentangle influenced band. The bassist was Selecter's roadie and we worked on a ska version of this although all of the musicians had gone folk rock. The band never got off the ground as Andy left to do Phd and I moved to Teesside to do a BA. I don't have any recordings of that version - this is just me and an acoustic guitar with the original draft of the song. This lyric was published in my 2nd
collection of poems and lyrics - Poet Reprobate
1985
MRS STRESS AND STRAIN
When
the sun’s out shining
Are
you always ironing?
Does
Steven need new shoes?
And
Mary have the lover’s blues?
As
life all around gets tense
Do
you ask yourself
‘where
is the sense?’
Now
the milkman hasn’t been
And
the rooms aren’t very clean.
There’s
bills to be paid
On
your mind they’re all weighed
Prices
rising higher
Your
state is getting higher.
Chorus
–
Mrs
Stress and Strain, To the kitchen sink you’re chained.
Worry
haunts your life, And I can see you are the wife
Of
Mr Toil and Strife.
“A
women’s works is never done”
and
the housework isn’t fun
Who
else would work as hard as you
Such
long hours, no rest due.
The
stresses and the strains you bear,
The
children and the mothercare!
And
the beat goes on, day by day,
The
isolation wears your soul away.
There’s
nothing to show for all your work
You
can’t stop a room from gathering dirt!
You
feel you’ve got no life left of your own,
A
permanent fixture, a doorpost in your home.
And
though you’ll never make ends meet,
The
adverts entice you to compete
With
the image of an all-mod-con
Trendy
space age super mom.
Should
profiteers always hold the trump cards?
You’ve
been dealt a hand of jokers –
What
a façade!
Who’s
the one they fall back upon.
Sometimes
slave means the same as mom.
They
never see the other side of you
Only
what they expect of you.
Pinned
down in a domestic situation
With
little pills to ease your aggravation.
Sit
down, sit back, light up and sigh,
Does
your position in society make you cry?
“How
hard’s the fortune of all women kind,
they’re
always in fetters, always confined.
Bound
down by parents until made wives
Slaves
to their husbands the rest of their lives.”
Chorus
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