One in Ten.

I've been listening to UB40's 1980 album "Signing Off" again and really enjoying it. The Dub versions are good too.

The music was recorded wherever the band could find somewhere; some in a kitchen with birdsong from the garden preserved in the background!

I think the songs stand up even after all these years;


"One in Ten"


I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don't exist
Nobody Knows me
But I'm always there
A statistic, a reminder
Of a world that doesn't care

My arms enfold the dole queue
Malnutrition dulls my hair
My eyes are black and lifeless
With an underprivileged stare
I'm the beggar on the corner
Will no-one spare a dime?
I'm the child that never learns to read
'Cause no-one spared the time

[Chorus] 

I'm the murderer and the victim
The licence with the gun
I'm a sad and bruised old lady
In an ally in a slum
I'm a middle aged businessman
With chronic heart disease
I'm another teenaged suicide
In a street that has no trees

[Chorus] 

I'm a starving third world mother
A refugee without a home
I'm a house wife hooked on Valium
I'm a Pensioner alone
I'm a cancer ridden spectre
Covering the earth
I'm another hungry baby
I'm an accident of birth

UB40

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
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