Thurles Information

The Button Pusher.

Vocals: Irish folk band The Dubliners and Luke Kelly.
Lyrics: Scotland born and Canada-based folksinger and songwriter Enoch Kent.

The Button Pusher.

I am the man, the well-fed man, in charge of the terrible knob.
The most pleasing thing about it, it’s almost a permanent job.
When the atom war is over, and the world is split in three,
A consolation I got, well maybe it’s not, there’ll be nobody left but me.

I sit at me desk in Washington in charge of this great machine,
More vicious than Adolf Hitler, more deadly than strychnine,
And in the evening after a tiring day, just to give myself a laugh,
I hit the button a playful belt and I listen for the blast.

Chorus:
Well I am the man, the well-fed man, in charge of the terrible knob.
The most pleasing thing about it, it’s almost a permanent job,
When the atom war is over, and the world is split in three,
A consolation I got, well maybe it’s not, there’ll be nobody left but me.

Repeat Chorus:
If Brezhnev starts his nonsense, and makes a nasty spell,
With a wink and a nod from Nixon, I’ll blast them all to hell,
And as for that Fidel Castro, him with the sugar cane,
He needn’t hide behind his whiskers, I’ll get him just the same.

Repeat Chorus:
If me wife denies me con-jugular rights or my breakfast milk is sour,
From eight to nine in the morning you’re in for a nervous hour.
The button being so terribly close, it’s really a dreadful joke,
A butt with my arse, as I go past, and we’ll all go up in smoke.

Repeat Chorus:
Now I’m thinking of joining the army, the army that bans the bomb.
We’ll take up a large collection, and I’ll donate my thumb.
For without it, I am helpless, and that’s the way to be.
You don’t have to kill the whole bloody lot to make the people free.

END.