The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #22711   Message #3853060
Posted By: Joe Offer
29-Apr-17 - 09:49 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Walkin' Boss / Walking Boss
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Walkin' Boss / Walking Boss
There's just a little bit in the Traditional Ballad Index on this song:

Walking Boss

DESCRIPTION: "Walking boss (x2), I don't belong to you. I belong (x2) to that steel driving crew." "Work one day, just one day, just one day, Then go lay in the shanty two." Etc. Verses loosely descriptive of life on a railroad crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (collected by Newman Ivey White)
KEYWORDS: railroading work nonballad worksong boss
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 96, "Walking Boss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7693
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Walking Boss" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
NOTES: A "walking boss" was a foreman who gave orders to workers' immediate supervisors, rather than to the workers themselves.
Source: Clarence "Tom" Ashley recalled this song being sung by railroad workers, probably in the 1920s. - PJS
File: CSW096

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