Another easy list for our local paper's Rating Game: Best Songs About Work. The following three quickly came to mind.
(And you know, I keep posting these, but nobody offers their own favorites. I hereby officially solicit your responses. Now get back to work.)
“The Promised Land”
Bruce Springsteen has written many songs about work, but “The Promised Land” captures the frustrations of working dreams deferred: “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.”
Something to listen to for all of you itching for something to start while you drive all night chasing some mirage:
(Now you see him, now you don't: Rest in peace, Danny Federici.)
“The Internationale”
Wikipedia offers more lyrics than you’ll ever need to this global workers’ anthem. But the stirring melody doesn’t change, and from the collective farm to the Ford plant the workers-of-the-world unite, raised-fist anger and optimism of this song remain the same.
Sing along with Bill Bragg's version, and for three minutes unite the Earth in song.
“Hallelujah I’m a Bum”
The perfect tune for when you can’t work because there’s no work to do: “When springtime does come, / Oh won't we have fun, / We'll throw up our jobs / And we'll go on the bum.”
Arthur Fields skips through the tune at 78 revolutions per minute:
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