It was February 1973 and the UK was in the middle of a political conflict between the unions and the government of the day.
As a consequence, it seemed as if the whole country was on strike. Power cuts were common, as was what became known as the Three Day Week. It wasn’t all bad, though. There were still some great tunes about and one of them came from folk-rock exponents, The Strawbs.
Written by group members John Ford and Richard Hudson, Part of the Union was the band’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to the working man. Highly commercial, it is a sing-a-long number which struck a chord with record buyers, who sent it up to Number 2 in the UK charts.
This was The Strawbs’ biggest UK hit, though. While they were hugely popular on the live circuit, they could only manage two other hit songs: Lay Down and Shine On Silver Sun.
It's a shame that song is how many will remember them - they had much better, if less commercial, stuff.
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