Songs about jobs

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

Lovely Rita (Meter Maid) - The Beatles

Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

Mr. Bass Man - Johnny Cymbal

Mr. Spaceman - The Byrds

Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes

Jazzman - Carole King

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves - Cher

Soldier Boy - The Shirelles

The Pied Piper - Crispian St. Peters

Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers

Takin Care of Business - BTO

Money for nothing - Dire Straits

Banana boat song(Day O) - Belafonte

16 Tons - T.E. Ford

Sheep - Pink Floyd

You'll be hearing from Disney's IP lawyers in the morning.

Here's just a few off the top of my head...

Michelle Shocked - The L and N Don't Stop Here Anymore

Bruce Springsteen - Working on the Highway

Bruce Springsteen - My Hometown

Billy Joel - Allentown

Billy Joel - Piano Man

Jackson Browne - Shaky Town

Jackson Browne - The Load Out

Rita MacNeil - Working Man

China Crisis - Working With Fire and Steel

Depeche Mode - Working On The Pipeline

John Mellencamp - Pink Houses

John Mellencamp - Rain On The Scarecrow

John Mellencamp - Check It Out

Buddy o mine was almost wiped out by a giant piece o loose. Came back from lunch, and his scaffold was a pancake. I was on surface one afternoon, and the man-yaks blew up the core shack from below. Crazy bastards everywhere on that job

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"Dark as a Dungeon Way Down in the Mine" -Johhny Cash

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I've never been down a mine, but I just knew this song "nailed it" when I first heard it on my brother's copy of "Folsom Prison Blues". And it was a "new release" at the time.

And you know what? It's one of the very few songs I can do justice to with my voice.

"Takin Care of Business" is actually about not working. A better BTO song about work is a personal anthem of mine, "Blue Collar". If you've ever worked night shift-- not swinging through but as a permanent thing-- it's your song.

"The air is clear under diamond skies and I'm glad to be alive."

"Little Black Fly" comes to mind as a song about both work and Nordern Hontario.

And, dealing in illicit substances can be a job, and a family business, as witnessed in Steve Earl's "Copperhead Road".

Stompin' Tom... it might be quicker to list the song he wrote that wern't about work.

Then there's CCR's "The Workin' Man."

[url=http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/09/04/the-twenty-fi...'s a top 25 list from Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part it's shite, as most lists of this nature are.[/url]

Lard Tunderin' Jezus!

You missed the obvious: I'se the B'y.

For shame, Lard, for shame.

[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Millworker-James Taylor
(From the stage musical based on Studs Terkel's WORKING: )

Now my grandfather was a sailor
He blew in off the water
My father was a farmer
And I, his only daughter
Took up with a no good millworking man
From Massachusetts
Who dies from too much whiskey
And leaves me these three faces to feed

Millwork ain't easy
Millwork ain't hard
Millwork it ain't nothing
But an awful boring job
I'm waiting (on) a daydream
To take me through the morning
And put me in my coffee break
Where I can have a sandwich
And remember

Then it's me and my machine
For the rest of the morning
(and) the rest of the afternoon
And the rest of my life

Now my mind begins to wander
To the days back on the farm
I can see my father smiling at me
Swinging on his arm
I can hear my granddad's stories
Of the storms out on Lake Eerie
Where vessels and cargos and fortunes
And sailors' lives were lost

(Yeah), but it's my life has been wasted
And I have been the fool
To let this manufacturer
Use my body for a tool
(I'll) ride home every evening
Staring at my hands
Swearing to my sorrow that a young girl
Ought to stand a better chance

So may I work your mills just as long as I am able
And never meet the man whose name is on the label

(it's still)me and my machine
For the rest of the morning
And the rest of the afternoon (and on and on and on...)
for the rest of my life

We Work the Black Seam Together-Sting:

This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It's hard for us to understand
We can't give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation's soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense

One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can't control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together

The seam lies underground
Three million years of pressure packed it down
We walk through ancient forest lands
And light a thousand cities with our hands
Your dark satanic mills
Have made redundant all our mining skills
You can't exchange a six inch band
For all the poisoned streams in Cumberland

One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can't control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together

And should the children weep
The turning world will sing their souls to sleep
When you have sunk without a trace
The universe will suck me into place

One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can't control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together

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Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
[b]"Takin Care of Business" is actually about not working[/URL][/b]

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[img]confused.gif" border="0[/img] I think the first ten lines of the song are about the daily grind of working nine to five. But then the song suggests if we're fed up with nine to five and think their jobs as musicians is a life of leisure, then we should give it a try. But I tend to think that the path to becoming a good musician might require dedication and some work.

I'm Gonna Be an Engineer, by Peggy Seeger.

I can't find the video that I know exists of her singing it, so here is Pete Seeger's version:

Morning Train, by Sheena Easton, which is about her husband's job and how hard he works, and her job, which is apparently to greet him in Saran Wrap with a cocktail at the end of the day, after spending "all day thinking about him, dreaming of him constantly".

Hallelujah! I'm a Bum

1. Oh, why don't you work
Like other men do?
How the hell can I work
When the skies are so blue?
Chorus:
Hallelujah! I'm a bum,
Hallelujah bum again,
Hallelujah! give us a handout
To revive us again.

2. Oh, I love my boss
And my boss loves me,
And that is the reason
I'm so hungry.

3. Well, springtime has come
And I'm just out of jail,
Without any money,
Without any bail.

4. Oh why don't you save all
The money you earn?
Well if I didn't eat,
I'd have money to burn.

5. Oh, I like my boss,
He's a good friend of mine,
And that's why I'm standing
Out in the breadline.

6. I can't buy a job
'cause I ain't got the dough
So I ride in a boxcar
'cause I'm a hobo.

7. I went to a house and
I knocked on the door,
The lady said, "Scram, bum,
You've been here before!"

8. I went to a house, and
I asked for some bread;
A lady came out, says,
"The baker is dead."

9. I went to a bar and
I asked for a drink,
They gave me a glass
And they showed me the sink.

10. Oh why don't you work
Like other folks do?
How can I get a job
When you're holding down two?

11. Whenever I get all
The money I earn,
The boss will be broke
And to work he must turn.

12. When springtime does come,
Oh won't we have fun,
We'll throw up our jobs
And we'll go on the bum.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOscaTfHLFs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Some business to take care of, apparently.

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Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day

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Now, it can be said that the previous two stanza's above those lines describe work, or more specifically, the commute to work and work associated behaviors.

As far as the song being about the "work" of being a musician, I have no doubt Randy Bachman "worked" and continues to "work" at music. However, in my mind, the last two stanza's aren't about that kind of musician. I think-- understanding that being a sucessfull musician requires a level of activity most of us would consider "work", the line about picking up a second hand guitar (listeners to Bachman's CBC radio show know how Bachman reveres quality guitars) was tongue in cheek. The guitar being a prop for a poser who just love lyin'in the sun all day, taking care of business, which is, nothing.

Here's a song about walking off the job:

[url=http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310&content=music&... Wage Strike -- David Rovics[/url]

quote:

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When I awoke one morning
There was a feeling in the air
Everything was quiet
Things were different everywhere
The Wobblies were back again
With Joe Hill at the mike
When all the minimum-wage workers went on strike

There was no one flipping burgers
All the grills were cold
Onion rings were in their bags
Fries were growing mold
There were no baristas at Starbucks
Asking, "how many shots would you like?"
When all the minimum-wage workers went on strike

There was no one pumping gasoline
No one driving from town to town
No one at the registers
All the highways were shut down
The cars were stuck in their garage
Businessmen on bikes
When all the minimum-wage workers went on strike

The fruit was falling off the trees
No one to load the trucks
Corn was rotting on the stalk
No farm hands to shuck
The workfare workers were hanging at home
Spending the day with their tykes
When all the minimum-wage workers went on strike

Yuppie parents were housebound
Their nannies left the job
Wal-Mart workers said enough
Of our labor has been robbed
The Foot Locker was locked up
The boss had to take a hike
When all the minimum-wage workers went on strike

(Repeat first verse)

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What do you make of this stanza, Tommy?

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Well, it's rock and roll, not a work by Milton where every word is painstakingly sellected to convey a certain meaning, mood, and depressing mindset until you just wish your English Teacher's head would explode and splatter the classroom walls with gore.

I mean, sometimes mountains come out of the sky and stand there. Which is a [i]roundabout[/i] way of saying that it doesn't have to be perfect, Yes?
[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Anywho, I just went looking for an interview I found years ago where Bachman told the story around the recording of "Taking Care of Business". Sadly, I can no longer find it. I did find a synopsis written by someone else, but it's not as good as story.

Pizza delivery guy plays piano. Piano works, have to trace down Pizza guy so they can use it on the album.

See? Bachman tells it better.

Patricia the Stripper

The Worker's Song by the Dropkick Murphys

The Knack (British band from the 60s-(Man From The) Marriage Guidance & Advice Bureau

Billy J. Kramer-Town Of Tuxley Toymaker

Keith West-Excerpt From A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)

Keith West-Sam (about a train conductor)

Pretty Things-Photographer

Kinks-Session Man

Kinks-Mr.Reporter

Rolling Stones-The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man

Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra-Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman

Dead Kennedys-Police Truck

Dave Dudley-Six Days On The Road

Lonnie Donegan-My Old Man's A Dustman

Bud the Spud.

I hope no one has mentioned this yet. Though the lyricist seems to have had a lot of condescension, this is in appreciation for some people who don't get much in Toronto at present.  It was composed before the time of dustpersons.

MY OLD MAN'S A DUSTMAN
(Buchanan / Donegan / Thorne)
Lonnie Donegan - 1960

Now here's a little story
To tell it is a must
About an unsung hero
That moves away your dust.

Some people make a fortune,
Others earn a mint;
My old man don't earn much:
In fact he's flippin' skint.

Oh, my old man's a dustman,
He wears a dustman's hat,
He wears cor-blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat

etc