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Working Tunes
Let’s start off March with some of the soundtrack of our lives, songs about work and working. Here are a few tunes that come to mind for me. Are some of these songs that come to mind for you as well, and do you have other tunes in your mental soundtrack?
Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” is the first song that comes to my mind. It is a working man’s lament at a rigged system, while also boasting of great physical prowess, a man among men.
I grew up in the 1970s, my first concert was with our whole family going to see the Carpenters, so it should surprise no one that Jim Croce, with his blue collar folksy sound, would be next in my soundtrack. You know, “those steadily depressing, low-down mind-messing, working at the car wash blues.”
From there, we go uptempo, with a beat that gets us hustling towards the office or factory, with Dolly Parton’s “Working Nine to Five:”
About the same time, Huey Lewis and the News recorded a similarly uptempo tune. Notice that there are some of the same elements of workers’ lament about unfair imbalance of power and exploitation, but it is delivered in such a peppy manner that your mind latches onto “working for a living, working!”
Disco was nearing the end of its run as the Queen of Disco, Donna Summers recorded a song about an older waitress at a diner: “She Works Hard for the Money (so you’d better treat her right).”
Then there is that famous novelty tune, a country and western song recorded by Johnny Paycheck. The song was played on the radio on Friday afternoons and got plenty of jukebox play, with crowd participation at times, belting out the tag line “take this job and shove it!”
On the other hand, at the same time as Dolly Parton’s “Nine to Five” Sheena Easton was singing “9 to 5 (Morning Train)” in which she celebrated the connection between work and love. “My baby takes the morning train” while she keeps their little home and anticipates her man coming home at the end of the work day.
I’ll leave you with a song about workers working the Man, Johnny Cash’s irrepressible toe tapping tune “One Piece at a Time:”
I look forward to hearing your favorite work or working tunes in the comments.
Published in General
Jeff Beck’s and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbon’s cover of 16 Tons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aqvKY6zLc
For truck drivers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvEvBUG8mY
After many a night in the hospital I have hummed this to my self…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjyj8qnqkYI
The Beatles singing about work;
And the Beatles complaining about all the punishing taxes they pay because their hard work paid off.
Murder, she wrote!
Great combination.
I knew I could count on Ricochet members for a great variety of work related tunes.
“I’m gettin’ really good at barely gettin’ by!”
“Ain’t no shame in a job well done.”
The late, great Dan Seals’ Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold
“Hi, Mr. DJ, I’d like to dedicate this song to Little Mike.”
This needs to go into some of the Trump rallies as walk out music that President Trump can riff off, maybe even the acceptance speech at the convention.
“Witchita Lineman” It might be more technically a love song than a work song, but I think it still fits the category.🙂
This song isn’t quite so much about the work, but the lifestyle of being a working musician. While a lot of songs about work are songs of complaint, this song is totally upbeat. The viewpoint is, “Yeah, we’re not making a lot of money but we’re having a great time, and we don’t resent those who make a lot more.” Beyond the lyrics, this song sounds so good I’d like it even if it were sung in a foreign language. If that’s not cool enough, the video was partially shot in Deadwood, South Dakota, not too far from where we’re going to have a big Ricochet Meetup this fall!
Sure. I was also thinking about posting it.
In the big rock candy mountain?
That song was about not working! Hobo heaven.
OK. Call it an example of a nonworking tune. And I should have said “mountains”.
I sing this to myself all of the time. Because you really do have to get behind the mule every morning and plow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7yuTR8r6QM
That calls to mind that calls to mind a variety of songs by bands about the road. The road the new calls to mind “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” a sweet song about a trucker on the way home to his wife, making his last run of a 30 year career:
Let’s not forget the Isley Brothers’ Work To Do. From 1972:
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Let’s not forget the Isley Brothers’ Work To Do. From 1972:
And if it has not been mentioned yet, “Car Wash” from the 1970s movie of the same name.
And also “Rocket Man” by Elton John
And the theme from the tv show “ The Jeffersons”
Two railroad classics “John Henry” and “K.C. Jones”
Mining: “Big John”
And for a type of work which(thank G-d) America doesn’t do anymore, “ Molasses to Rum to Slaves” from the musical “1776”
A good song about work is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” I love the lines “When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck, sayin’ ‘Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.’ At seven p.m. an old hatchway caved in, he said, ‘Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”
My favorite song about work is Billy Joel’s “The Downeaster Alexa.”
And my favorite song to work to is “I’m Walkin’ on Sunshine.”
The Flaming Lips are not for everybody, but they’re for me. This was in a Batman movie I think, but a great song even without that notariety.
This post is part of our Group Writing Series under the March 2020 Group Writing Theme: “Working.” There are plenty of open days, so get busy and work it! Stop by and sign up now.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.