If there’s a song called “Job Search Blues,” I want to add it to this collection of ten working songs. It’s an open-ended list that goes back as far as Woody Guthrie’s John Henry. Your additions, updates, corrections, and comments are welcome.
I have yet to find a song about loving work or loving a job, so all the songs in this initial list complain about looking for a job, life on the job, and—without using the actual phrase—the lack of job benefits. Johnny Cash said, “The lowdownest kind of blues, I believe, is the working man blues,” as he warmed up for a live performance of Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues.”
Listen and enjoy.
Get a Job
Mills Brothers
When I get the papers, I read it through and through
And my girl never fails to see if there is any work for me
9 to 5
Dolly Parton
I tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen
I pour myself a cup of ambition
Shiftwork
Kenny Chesney and George Strait
Seven to three, three to eleven, eleven to seven”
Chain Gang
Sam Cooke
All day long they work so hard till the sun is going down
Working on the highways and byways and wearing, wearing a frown
16 Tons
Tennessee Ernie Ford
You load 16 tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deep in debt
Working Man Blues
Merle Haggard
I drink a little beer in the evening
And sing a little bit of these working man blues
Working for the Weekend
Loverboy
Everybody’s going off the deep end…
Everyone wants you to come through
John Henry
Woody Guthrie
Hammer’ll be the death of me, Lord, Lord
Rock N Me
Steve Miller
Well, I been looking real hard and I’m trying to find a job
But it just keeps getting tougher every day
Working for the Man
Roy Orbison
Now, don’t relax, I want elbows and back
I wanna see everybody form behind
Thanks to Tabitha Childers, Steve and Jenny Yates, and Judith Lloyd for their help in compiling the first draft of Working Songs.
“Get a Job.” The Silhouettes 1957
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hkJL6wRBE8
Steve,
Thanks for the link to the Shilhouettes version. Your link did not work. I hope my replacement goes to the video you found.
Peter
[...] I foolishly thought—some semblance the world’s most noteworthy working songs in Working Songs, a Musical Interlude that I would miss some. But not so many and, among them, so many [...]