Some great songs here, Working Class Hero especially a long time favourite. However, it was "Roll Out the Pickets" that really got me thinking. My dad was a working class man, unlike his soft-palmed offspring and always a Labor. One of his prized possessions was a photo of him in his machine shop coat shaking hands with Bob Hawke. For all his solid Labor positions he actually had quite terrible taste in music, one of his favourites being "Roll Out the Barrel". If only he'd known about Ruby Rains!

This does inspire a musical story, for which I headed to my box of photos. Funnily enough, it was this photo on top. Not sure if you ever frequented the Baron of Beef in the Dandenongs, but here we all are! In can't remember much about it except they had a roving accordion player taking requests. My dad's request? "Roll Out the Barrel".

https://medium.com/@robertgowty/welcome-to-the-scratchpad-334e6be213ce