It's September and as we head into Labor Day with the economy in trouble and many out of work, it's probably not a good time to be telling your boss to "Take This Job and Shove it". Many desperately need that Paycheck and it hasn't been a great year for labor, especially if you work in Wisconsin. The songs that follow are some of my favorite work related songs in no particular order. This post will deal only with songs post 1979 so it won't even include one of my favorites of a humorous nature, Jim Croce's "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues". Let's get started with one of the best tributes to the working woman or man:
"Forty Hour Week" by Alabama, written by Lisa Silver, Don Schlitz and Dave Loggins. The song salutes auto workers, steel mill workers, farmers, coal miners, mail carriers, clerks, carpenters, firemen, heavy vehicle operators, etc. and concludes with "the waitress, the mechanic, the policeman on patrol, for everyone who works behind the scenes".
"Letters From Home" by John Michael Montgomery, written by Tony Mac Lane and David Cory Lee. After reading his letter the soldier says "I pick up my gun and get back to work". He has a job most of us would want no part of. Over 60 died in Afghanistan last month. How many soldiers are unable to find work after their military service is over due to PTSD or other mental or physical health issues?
"Cost of Living" by Ronnie Dunn, written by Phillip Coleman and Ronnie Dunn. A strong "song of the year" candidate for 2011, it's currently moving up the top 40 charts, but oh so slowly. The lyrics present the applicant's side of a job interview. He's an out of work veteran - served 18 months in the desert. "I got a strong back, steel toes, rarely call in sick ...". Costs are rising and his family is hurting. He's realistic about his chances of getting hired. "I'm sure a hundred others have applied, rumor has it you're only taking five".
"Daddy's Oldsmobile" by Hal Ketchum is another looking for work song, this one with a probable setting in the depression of the 1930's. "Another mornin' and we're up and gone, daddy says there's work in San Antone, two days of driving ain't no big deal, here in my daddy's Oldsmobile." The song was written by Hal Ketchum and David Mallett.
"Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis, written by Doug Johnson and Kim Williams. Work is obviously not the main theme of this song but it does praise the farmer who left "his faith and love for growin' things in his young son's heart" and "That teacher left her wisdom in the minds of lots of children, did her best to give 'em all a better start".
"For the Love" by Tracy Lawrence with Brad Arnold, written by Paul Nelson and Rick Huckaby, from the 2007 album of the same name. "They do it for the love, I know this cop in Cincinnati, born into money and prestige, he could be living off daddy, but instead he's out there on the beat, protecting and servin' you and me."
"9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, solely written by Dolly. I won't quote any lyrics here. Who doesn't know this song? Loved the movie too.
"Morning Train" by Sheena Easton, penned by Florrie Palmer (according to Wiki it was originally released in the UK as "9 to 5", but renamed "Morning Train" in the U.S. to avoid confusion with Dolly's song). The chorus goes, "My baby takes the morning train, he works from 9 to 5 and then, he takes another home again, to find me waiting for him". The song appealed to me as a long time commuter on the Long Island Railroad.
"Athens Grease" by Phil Vassar, written by Jerry Vandiver, Stephen Mandile and Phil. It's a rocking fun song about the "Redneck Picaso of the manual transmission". "Billy Joe Taylor's underneath that lift, there ain't a car on the planet that he can't fix". OK, it gets a bit punny when he sings, "He's the only man in town who can make, Charlie Vincent's van go."
"Hard Workin Man" by Brooks & Dunn, solely written by Ronnie Dunn. "I can ride, rope, hammer and paint, do things with my hands that most men can't, I can't get ahead no matter how hard I try, I'm gettin' really good at gettin' by".
Finally, here are a few of my favorite songs about waitresses. With fewer people eating out, many of them are probably struggling:
"Ordinary Day" by Hal Ketchum, written by Darrell Scott and Hal Ketchum from Hal's 2008 "Father Time" album. The song begins with the waitress waiting for her husband to pick her up from work. She's "counting tips, killing time, getting nowhere fast, well he's fifteen minutes late again, sorry's all he'll say, as the sun goes down on an ordinary day." The song concludes "I'm the queen of eggs and bacon, coffee on my sleeve, I'll be glad to take your order sir, I'm afraid I've got to leave, you see my chariot is waiting to carry me away."
In "Eat at Joe's" by Suzy Bogguss, written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison, Suzy is a waitress at an all night diner, "I go to work at 10:30 til 6 am, raking up those dimes and quarters, slinging eggs and ham."
"She's Taken a Shine" by John Berry, written by Greg Barnhill and Richard Bach. The waitress "Rosie hardly ever missed a bit of work, never took vacation days, home or the diner was all the same to her, she didn't know any other way".
What's your favorite song about the working woman or man?
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