Work, Work, Work, Work...

In honor of Labor Day today, I thought we should consider songs about working.  Yes, there are a few songs about the working life that celebrate the joy of having a job.  Usually, they reside in the realm of fantasy, such as the "Happy Working Song" from the movie Enchanted, or those memorable little ditties from Disney films.  The tireless dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves displayed their superior work ethic when they sang  "Whistle While You Work" and "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off To Work We Go."  Just thinking about them marching to work in the mine makes me tired.

More often, work songs address the unpleasant side of work, such as being overworked, under-appreciated and under-paid.  Here are just a few:

The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”
     "It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog".  Sound familiar?

In “The Pretender”, Jackson Browne talked about being  "caught between the longing for love, and the struggle for the legal tender."  Not a happy spot to find yourself.

Elvis Costello,  in “Welcome to the Working Week”, wrote  "I feel like a juggler running out of hands." Obviously his boss was asking him to multi-task to work more efficiently.

For all the "Working Class Heroes" out there, or anyone who considers themselves a "Blue Collar Man", your jobs may consist of toil and sweat and pain.  You might be like Lee Dorsey in his classic “Working in a Coal Mine”, and feel the same "when Saturday rolls around, I'm too tired for having fun."   Or, you may have to do a lot of heavy lifting, like Tennessee Ernie Ford in “Sixteen Tons”, if  “you load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt."

Maybe you don't carry a shovel or swing a hammer.   Maybe you spend the day staring into a computer screen, typing away until you have carpal tunnel syndrome, lower back pain, severe eye strain, a migraine, and a humungous badonkadonk from sitting in one spot all day.  Like Jonathan Coulton, who wrote the ode to computer programmers and gave us one day in the life of a Code Monkey:

“Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting with boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
but his output stink
his code not functional or elegant
what do Code Monkey think
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write goddamn login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy just proud”

Work is good for your soul and your bank account.  If you are lucky enough to enjoy your job, take pride in your daily achievements, and feel as though you are not only helping yourself and your family but also serving the common good of humanity, then all these work songs are merely amusing little tunes.  But what if you were trapped in an oppressive work environment, like Bob Dylan on “Maggie’s Farm”, who tells us about his boss.  “He hands you a nickel, he hands you a dime, he asks you with a grin if you're havin' a good time, then he fines you every time you slam the door. I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more."
Sometimes you just have to endure it. Remember that you or your kids need new shoes, like the quintessential working man in Merle Haggard's "Working Man Blues".  Just be glad you have a job, like Huey Lewis & the News in "Workin’ for a Livin'", who says “I'm taking what they're givin 'cause I'm workin' for a livin’.”

Just remember that it's not 24/7 and you get to go home sometime, like Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett in “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”, who tell us "I'm gettin' paid by the hour and older by the minute", but remind us that it will all be OK at quittin' time.

America is a great country, and its people make it great.  "We Built This City" and we are "The Hands That Built America".  We can continue to make it great, through hard work.  Billy Joel gave us a history lesson about the steel mills in “Allentown”, where "Every child had a pretty good shot, to get at least as far as their old man got, but something happened on the way to that place, they threw an American flag in our face."   (Incidentally, whenever I sing it, I like to say "they threw an American Pie in our face.  It's funnier.)

I'm not going to forget about the ladies.  After all, "She Works Hard for the Money".  Dolly Parton certainly does in “Nine to Five”, when she sings "workin' nine to five, what a way to make a living,  barely gettin' by it's all takin' and no givin'.  They just use your mind and they never give you credit.   It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it."  So true.

Let me wrap this up with three of the FINEST WORKSONGS:

Bruce Springsteen – “The Promised Land”
"I've done my best to live the right way; I get up every morning and go to work each day; But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold; Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode."

James Taylor – “Millworker”
"But it's my life has been wasted, and I have been the fool, to let this manufacturer use my body for a tool."

...and the National Anthem of Work Songs:
Johnny Paycheck – “Take This Job and Shove It”

“Well, I been working in this factory for now on fifteen years
All this time, I watched my woman drownin' in a pool of tears
And I've seen a lot of good folks die who had a lot of bills to pay
I'd give the shirt right off of my back if I had the guts to say
Take this job and shove it I ain't workin' here no more.”

Now, set the alarm on your clock radio and get a good night's sleep because tomorrow is another working day.