“The Socialists Are Coming” Sheet Music (pdf).
“The Socialists Are Coming” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Comrades Creech and Hull.
Tune: “Wait for the Wagon.”
Come, all you toiling nations, and listen to my song
Of the trials of honest labor caused by competition’s wrong!
It is this slavish system that makes you work so hard,
And live on bread and water, and support a monied lord.
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
It was in Eighteen-Seventy-Sev’n; the working folk got tired.
And thinking of their present wrongs, with rage their hearts were fired.
They told Tom Scott they would quit work unless he paid them more,
And that’s the only reason why he dyed the land with gore!
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
They called out their brave volunteers, who quickly fired on us
And butchered full five hundred of true, honest working folk!
They brought us to submission, but it did not make things right.
It learned us one good lesson, boys, and that was how to fight!
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
We’re the largest in the nation, and if we have a mind,
We’ll say who’ll represent us and who will stay behind.
We’ll send good men to make our laws, and rogues will get a slip.
We’ll have good times for working folk, as well as for the rich.
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
So, come, my friends, and join us, and you’ll never rue the day,
For we’ll change this present system to the Socialistic way.
We’ll make this earth a paradise, for so it ought to be,
And make ev’ry man a brother, boys, as well as you and me.
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
We’ll do our best and do it right and be good, honest folk.
And if, perchance, we should go wrong, we know they’ve done the same.
And so we’ll never give it up but try and try again
Until we get a full reform for honest, workingmen.
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
There is plenty in this world for all the sons of men
If there were not such vultures that are stealing all they can.
But while there is a Vanderbilt, a Tom Scott, or Jay Gould,
The rogues will still grow richer, and honest folk be fooled.
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.
Then let us change the system and not leave it for the few,
And if these lords don’t like it, why, they know what they can do!
So, at the next election, be careful how you vote,
And send good folk to make your laws that can’t be bribed or bought!
Then, wait for the wagon! The Socialists are coming.
Join in with our party, boys. it’s the only honest one.