Songs about Work


My camera is in Texas with Marty, and I'm recycling other card-uses.

36 comments:

Sandra Dodd said...

Working in a coal mine
Going down, down, down

(I have no idea...)

Shanona Ryder said...

Workin' for a livin',
livin' and workin'
I'm taking what they givin'
'cause I'm working for a livin'...

---Huey Lewis

Sandra Dodd said...

That ain't workin'
That's the way to do it
Get your money for nothin'
And your chicks for free...

Dire Straits

Rinnyboo said...

Take this job and shove it
I ain't working here no more


by Johnny Paycheck (I think)

Sandra Dodd said...

Two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight- by-twelve four-bit room

Roger Miller, "King of the Road"

Unknown said...

workin' nine to five what a way to make a livin'.

9 to 5
Dolly Parton

Sandra Dodd said...

Her name was Lola
She was a show girl

Barry Manilow, "Copa Cabana"

Anonymous said...

You load 16 tons and what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt.

16 Tons

Deborah in IL said...

And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man
Rocket man

Elton John/Bernie Taupin

Sandra Dodd said...

I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day

(Holly said that in a sing-along before a melodrama in Madrid NM there were some Brits there who didn't know the song at all. Madrid is the town they used in Wild Hogs, but it's not really a town of 500 with a sherriff and deputies. It's much smaller.)

Anonymous said...

I went to work for welfare in hopes to help the poor,
the staff showed me a desk and introduced me to the war,
they warned me that the battle started right outside the door,
and they fought it on The Paper Sea.

The Paper Sea - Leslie Fish
(also works for yesterday's word)

Sandra Dodd said...

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more

Bob Dylan


and the first quote on the first word of this game, in June!
http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/2007/06/farm.html

Schuyler said...

Old McDonald had a farm, ei-ei-oh
And on that farm he had a duck, ei-ei-oh

Linnaea's contribution, with the statement that farming is work.

Deborah in IL said...

If I was a sculptor, but then again no
Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show
I know it's not much but it's the best I can do
My gift is my song and this one's for you

Your Song
Elton John/Bernie Taupin

Sandra Dodd said...

Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace
Molly is a singer in the band

Beatles, "Obladi, Oblada"

Sylvia said...

Levon sells cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly

Levon ~ Elton John

Deborah in IL said...

Cause I got those steadily depressin low down mind messin workin at the car wash blues

Jim Croce

Sylvia said...

Workin' at the car wash, girl
Come on and sing it with me

Car Wash ~ Rose Royce

Sandra Dodd said...

I am an old cowpuncher
I punch them cows so hard
I have me a cow punching bag
Set up in my back yard...

John Roberts and Tony Barrand, Brits who live in New England, parodying in their most exaggerated Texas accents.

Deborah in IL said...

Anthony works in the grocery store
Saving his pennies for someday

and the second verse has

Sergeant O'Leary is walking the beat
At night he becomes a bartender

Moving Out - Anthony's Song
Billy Joel

Deborah in IL said...

Some built the roads
Some wrote the poems
Some went to war
Some never came home

Sons Of
Judy Collins

Deborah in IL said...

I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again

The Pretender
Jackson Browne

Deborah in IL said...

Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They're the first to come and the last to leave
Workin for that minimum wage
They'll set it up in another town

The Load Out
Jackson Browne

Deborah in IL said...

Asking only workmans wages I come lookin for a job
But I get no offers

The Boxer
Simon and Garfunkel

Deborah in IL said...

Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed

Willin'
Linda Ronstadt sings it in my head

Anonymous said...

Yeah the big boss man, he likes to crack that whip
I ain't nothing but a number on his timecard slip,
I give him 40 hours and a piece of my soul,
Puts me somewhere at the bottom of his totem pole,
Hell I don't even think he knows my name...


Get Drunk and Be Somebody~ Toby Keith

Anonymous said...

I'm for the low man on the totem pole
And I'm for the underdog god bless his soul
And I'm for the guys still pulling third shift
and the single mom raising her kids


Politcally Uncorrect~ Gretchen Wilson

Deborah in IL said...

And I need a job so I want to be a paperback writer

The Beatles

Deborah in IL said...

In Penny Lane the barber shaves another customer

The Beatles

Sandra Dodd said...

A forty-year-old waitress
These words to me did say
I see that you're a logger
And not just a common bum
Cause nobody but a logger
Stirs his coffee with his thumb

Waitress AND a logger!

Sandra Dodd said...

I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier said to me
If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten little flags for free...

John Prine, "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore"

Sandra Dodd said...

Oh! Later in the same song,

"By the time they got a doctor there
I was already dead
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing at the Pearly Gates said...

But your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore..."

(a doctor and a gatekeeping angel)

Deborah in IL said...

She was a level headed dancer
On the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier
On my way to Montreal

Spanish Pipedream
John Prine

Deborah in IL said...

Hey there Delilah I know times are getting hard
But just believe me girl someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar

Plain White T's

Sandra Dodd said...

He thinks dynamic tension
Must be hard work

8 words,
from Rocky Horror Picture Show,
"I can make you a man"

HoosierNan said...

California, Arizona
We've picked all your crops.
It's on now to Oregon to gather your hops.
Dig the beets from the ground,
Pick the grapes from the vine,
To set on your table your bright, sparkling wine.

--"Pastures of Plenty" by Woody Guthrie