"Breaks" by Mercury City String Band
Channel: Sean Conrey
Date: 02/04/2012

A song to think on as we decide what to do with our various occupations this summer. The lyrics (by Sean M. Conrey):

"Just give me a break
and I'll give you a job,"
you've spent our whole lives saying,
so breaks we gave, 
near all we saved,
and when the jobs came,
downtown slipped away
and we drove off to live
in the suburbs.
 
In the strip malls you made,
parked in lots that you paved,
we felt grateful for all
that you gave us.
For a while we forgot,
as we watched our town rot,
we gave you the breaks—
it's not your choice to make.
Who are you to say
who will have and who will have not? 

So we've started to see
the jobs that you gave us,
well, they mostly enslaved us,
we were doing much better
without you. 
You would have us believe
as we roll up our sleeves
that we couldn't have done it 
without you
But we've looked at the facts,
and your breaks broke our back,
so there's nothing more that we owe you.

Instead of taking up arms
we'll walk you out of town,
hand in hand we'll watch 
as you walk on.
We'll let the broken banks run
and then out in the sun
we'll work like your breaks
never broke us.

No, we won't take up arms
but we'll run you out of town,
hand in hand we'll surround
you in your mansion.
We'll let your stripmalls fall down
and we'll move back downtown
and we'll work like your breaks
never broke us.


The tune was recorded live on Friday, March 30, 2013 in Emily Bender and Brandon Murphy's living room. It features Sean M. Conrey on vocals and guitar, David Deacon on banjo, Brandon Murphy on bodhran, Emily Bender, Tom Baron and Tim Ferlito on backup vocals, handclaps and foot stomps. Please feel free to play the song and share the song as much as possible. We may be broke but we're not broken.