It's against the law to [ ..... ]

Against The Law

by Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967)

It's against the law to walk
It's against the law to talk
It's against the law to loaf
It's against the law to work
It's against the law to read
It's against the law to write
It's against the law to be
Black or brown or white

Everything's against the law
I'm a low paid daddy singing the high price blues

It's against the law to eat
It's against the law to drink
It's against the law to worry
It's against the law to think
It's against the law to marry
Or try to settle down
It's against the law to ramble
like a bum from town to town

Everything's against the law
I'm a low paid daddy singing the high price blues

It's against the law to come
It's against the law to go
It's against the law to ride
It's against the law to roll
It's against the law to hug
It's against the law to kiss
It's against the law to shoot
It's against the law to miss

Everything's against the law
I'm a low paid daddy singing the high price blues

It's against the law to gamble
It's against the law to roam
It's against the law to organize
Or try to build a home
It's against the law to sing
It's against the law to dance
It's against the law to tell you
All the trouble on my hands

Everything's against the law
I'm a low paid daddy singing the high price blues

Everything in Winston Salem is against the law
I'm a low paid daddy singing the high price blues

***************

Billy Bragg (pronounced: Biwwy Bwagg) sings a spectacular modern version of this song. Winston Salem is a city in the USA state of North Carolina. Woody (Arlo's dad) must have been having a particularly unpleasant visit there. Which was not hard to do in the USA South in those days (1930s - 1950s) if you had a head like Woody's. As the playwright Herb Gardner once described a character, "Her political philosophy lies somewhere to the left of Woopie." Woody's was about 4.023 millimetres to the right of that.