Poor Paddy Works on the Software

Air: Poor Paddy Works on the Railway

[ANDANTE]

In nineteen hundred and eighty-one

The stripy braces I put on

I put my stripy braces on

To work upon the software, the software

I'm weary of the software

Poor Paddy works on the software

[ALLEGRO]

In nineteen hundred and eighty-two

From IBM to Fujitsu

I found myself a job to do

A-working on the software

I was wearing stripy braces

Setting traces, shifting places

Switching cases, I

Was working on the software

In nineteen hundred and eighty-three

I played my Leonard Cohen LP

I went to work for Her Majesty

On poll tax payment software

I was wearing stripy braces

Setting traces, shifting places

Switching cases, I

Was working on the software

[ANDANTE]

In nineteen hundred and eighty-four

I landed on the Shoreditch shore

Me eyes were red, me wrists were sore

From working on the software, the software

I'm burnt out from the software

Poor Paddy works on the software

[ALLEGRO]

In nineteen hundred and eighty-five

When Billy Gates was only five

When Lady Ada was still alive

I worked upon the software 

I was wearing stripy braces

Setting traces, shifting places

Switching cases, I

Was working on the software

Then came the old millennium 

All I did was sit on me bum

Raking dosh and playing dumb

For fiddling with the software

I was wearing stripy braces

Setting traces, shifting places

Switching cases, I

Was working on the software

[ANDANTE]

In the year of two thousand and one

Poor Paddy's millennium bug was gone

The sod had to give up his coke and rum

And work upon the software, the software

I'm sick to me death of the software

Poor Paddy works on the software

[ALLEGRO]

I was wearing stripy braces

Setting traces, shifting places

Switching cases, I

Was working on the software!

--

Stephen Moran