Nothing was given to me,
I didn’t get nothing for free
Worked more than my share,
Please don’t call it fair
There’s plenty that got worse than me.
No, nothing was given to me.

I'm a mailman,
in the union,
I fought in Korea
I'm a Republican because those Democrats
want to give the world away
I give three dollars to the church every Sunday
and I put a quarter in the poor box
I grew up in Soho near Oakland in Pittsburgh
I quit school in the sixth grade
because my mother kept five kids
on seventeen dollars and fifty cents a week
and I worked for a dude who worked my butt off
and paid me grit and robbed me blind
and let me work enough hours a week
that I could not get relief
and I hate him to this very day

Nothing was given to me,
Nothing was given to me,

My brother spent half his life learning a trade
and still has to work two jobs to keep his family
My sister got herself an education,
Now she lives with my mother.
She drinks coke all day, takes pills, watches t.v.,
and looks like hell
My mother goes to 8 o'clock mass every morning
and prays all day
For the good Lord to take her away.
My father died when I was nine
‘cause he couldn't take it
Now, I'm the only one who visits his grave
I go there three times a year and trim the weeds



Nothing was given to me,
I didn’t get nothing for free
Worked more than my share,
Please don’t call it fair
There’s plenty that got worse than me.
No, nothing was given to me.

My bones ache I might die tomorrow
The bank owns my house, car and furniture
My house is falling down and sinking into the mines
My furniture is coming apart
My car is rusting away like it has cancer
I don't drink anymore
‘cause the doctors said it would kill me
I don't smoke anymore
‘cause the doctors said it would kill me
I don't do anything anymore
except come home from work,
Clean the house,
Eat cold food out of a can,
Then sit on the back porch
with nothing to bother me till it gets dark

The doctors say nothing about that

I have two sons and a daughter
I tell them to take everything they can get
Only don't get what I got

Don’t get what I got.