Labor Day Music: songs about work and workers

[Sir Stewart]

I remember being really pissed off at Jagger, a zillionaire, telling me, a broke-ass kid, to work. Fuck him.

 

I probably would've gotten pissed too if I could ever have recovered my breath from laughing hysterically watching the video.

[Rusty Shackleford]

How about a couple of Jason Isbell/DBT songs:

 

TVA

 

and

 

The Day John Henry Died

[bjorn_skurj]

I probably would've gotten pissed too if I could ever have recovered my breath from laughing hysterically watching the video.

Oh, man. Yeah.

[Gobias Industries]

Uncle Tupelo - Shaky Ground

[okp greg]

Cursive - Ten Percent to the Ten Percent

 

You seemed like such a smart young man

Your father's got a lot of friends

I didn't bother to check your references

We're a successful company with endless opportunity

So why must you shit where you eat?

 

It all started out in the warehouse

Watching the stock, watching the clock

Taking shots from a flask of scotch

My first evaluation came

Remarkably they sang my praise

Keep up the pace, you could see a raise in pay.

 

This seemed like a good challenge to me

So I started a game of craps in the back alley

What better way to supplement minimum wage?

Despite these fits of debauchery

The managers failed to notice me

So, what the fuck, I started stealing things

 

Once inventory rolled around

A few skew items could not be found

Some DVD's and a wide screen TV

'We'll dock these items from your pay

We expect you to finish out the day

Your father must be so ashamed

 

Fuck you and your job

And I'll shit where I want

 

This country's going to go out with a bang

This country's headed for Dependence Day

So lay out your blankets and wait for the fireworks' display

You're restless and bored and your job keeps you broke

Big Business booms to make sure that we don't

So get in the ring, you just ran out of rope

 

I'll give ten percent to the ten percent

(I'll give ten percent)

Hand me those classifieds

[LouieB]

How about a couple of Jason Isbell/DBT songs:

 

TVA

 

and

 

The Day John Henry Died

It is amazing and a testimony to how great older songs are that Justin Earle also has a John Henry song (check that one out too...) Or just go with the orginial, available in countless versions.

 

Another great song, Coal Tattoo .

 

Coal Tattoo

(Billy Ed Wheeler)

 

Travelin' down that coaltown road,

Listen to those rubber tires whine;

Goodbye to Buckeye and White Sycamore,

I'm leavin' you behind.

I've been a coal man all my life

Layin' down track in the hole,

Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind

Blood veins blue as the coal.

 

Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo

You have on the side of your head."

I said "That's a blue print, left by the coal

Just a little more and I'd be dead"

And I love the rumble and I love the dark

I love the cool of the slate.

But it's on down the new road lookin' for a job

It's the travelin' and lookin' I hate.

 

I've stood for the union, walkin' the line,

Fought against the company;

Stood for the U. M. W. of A.

Now who's gonna stand for me?

I got no house and I got no pay,

Just got a worried soul;

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head

Left by the number nine coal.

 

Someday when I'm dead and gone

To Heaven, the land of my dreams,

I won't have to worry on losin' my job

To bad times 'n big machines.

I ain't gonna pay my money away

For pensions and hospital plans.

I'm gonna pick coal where the blue heavens roll

And sing with the angel bands.

 

 

LouieB

[SteveMck]

The dB's - Working for Somebody Else

[The High Heat]

"Working at the Car Wash Blues" by Jim Croce