Malvina
Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems
Upside Down
Notes: words and music
by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1975 Schroder Music Company, renewed 2003.
Propaganda says the raise in wages
Makes the prices hike.
They got it upside down and wrongside to,
And that's why we're on strike.
Chorus:
You got it upside down, backside to,
Inside out I say.
Prices can rise as they god-damn please,
But wages have to fight their way, all the way.
You play inflation like a parlor game,
With stocks you can juggle around.
Inflation for us is hamburger
At a dollar and a half a pound.
(Chorus)
Profits and executive salaries
Keep rising up and up,
But the worker stands at the payday line
Holding out the old tin cup.
(Chorus)
Inflation flies up to the skies
Whenever it has a mind,
Prices go where they want to go,
But wages crawl along behind.
(Chorus)
Rent rises, tax rises,
Food goes higher every day,
Takes real money to pay it all
And we have to have real pay.
(Chorus)