Songs celebrating the working man/ woman

Subject: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Wesley S
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 10:04 AM

Labor day is coming up this Monday - what good songs do you know that sing the praises of working people ? Woody always comes to mind with "Pastures Of Plenty" and "Deportees". Merle Haggard had "The Working Man Blues". There are a lot more - what songs are you singing? Railroad songs ? Coal mining songs? Sea chanties?

As a seperate rant, I don't plan to shop any of the stores that are open this holiday. I can't see having a holiday for working people and then keeping your store open. I'm so glad I don't work retail anymore.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: IanC
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 10:16 AM

I've always liked Leon Rosselson's The World Turned Upside Down. Maybe because it's about local (East Anglian) heroes, maybe something else. I don't know.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: mooman
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 10:33 AM

I like Elvis Costello's and Clive Langer's "Shipbuilding" as sung by Robert Wyatt although the song has a slightly wider significance also.

mooman

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 10:58 AM

The DT has a @WORK subject category, it would pull up more than you could possibly need, I'd guess!
RtS (This old hammer , it killed John Henry but it won't kill me)

Subject: Lyr Add: SELL YOUR LABOUR NOT YOUR SOUL (B McNeill
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 11:01 AM

SELL YOUR LABOUR NOT YOUR SOUL
(Brian McNeill)

Chorus:
Young and old, true and bold
Sell your labour not your soul
Solidarity's your goal - join the union

Come and listen through the land, working woman, working man
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
Black, brown or white, get ready for the fight
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
Will you stand upon your rights or will you live upon your knees
Doff your cap and look away while the bosses take their ease

Unemployment is the fear the bosses whisper in your ear
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
Short term contract when they hire makes it easier to fire
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
More efficiency's the cry, technology's the game
And every dividend you double - well your wages stay the same

They say the unions' day is done and the country's moving on
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
Aye the government knows best, private sector does the rest
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
They'll privatise your hopes and they'll privatise your fears
If they catch your children crying they'll privatise their tears

We will rise, we will grow, we are stronger than we know
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
We will not be denied for we have right upon our side
Young and old, true and bold - join the union
So raise the banners high, let us all march behind
Let Scotland be the first to draw the new union line

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From:
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 11:09 AM

Plus there are many songs about a particular occupation. There are songs in the DT (either database or Forum) on Secretaries (Bosses' Lament) through to Archeologists, engineers and songs about unions (Let Union Be In All Our Hearts).

I wonder if we should put together in here a list of songs for specific occupations, as well as songs about unions, etc.

Hmmmm.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 11:13 AM

I like Sipbuilding as well, Billy Conolly used to work in a shipyard, I think he sang it once but it might of been somebody else, I can't remember.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 01:55 PM

Tom Paxton (I think) did "I'm the man who built the bridges." Woodie did "The Greatest Thing That Man Has Ever Done." I think I've seen an arrangement on a recent thread where verses of that are alternated with verses of "I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago," which is close but not exactly. Utah Phillips: "Funeral Train" for miners; "Goodnight-Loving Trail" for camp cooks and cowboys in general. "Buckaroo Man" for cowboys--Dave Stamey, I think is how it's spelled. "End of Train Device" for railroaders. Gordon Lightfoot, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," but that's too many railroad songs. Dolly Parton, "9 to 5" just to mention an obvious choice. "Jackhammer Blues" also Woodie. "Johnny Took His Fiddle" in a way applicable to musicians. [Out of genre, but "Sultans of Swing" for musicians.] I'll think of three more soon as I post.

CC

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Mark Clark
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 02:28 PM

My very favorite will always be The Song Of My Hands that I posted a while back for the DT. It hasn't made it to the DT yet but I have hopes that it may someday.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 02:47 PM

Hard Traveling by Woodie Guthrie!!

Here's a verse about my job!

I've been doing some hard Programming.
I thought you knowed.
I've been doing some hard Programming.
To pay for what's owed.
I've been walking a fine line.
Working all night, tryng to make a deadline.
I been doing some hard coding Lord

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 03:48 PM

Check out last year's Labour Day Song Challenge for tributes to all sorts of work.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 04:29 PM

Have to mention "Ordinary Man" sung by Christy Moore. That song lives all around me.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: michaelr
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 07:48 PM

Wesley -- You need this! Green Linnet in 1990 released a compilation called "Hard Cash", companion to a BBC TV series, of songs dealing with work and workers. It's an excellent collection. Here's the lowdown:

Time to Ring some Changes (Richard Thompson)
The Great Provider (Clive Gregson & Christine Collister)
A Living Wage (Ron Kavana)
Work Life out to keep Life in (Martin Carthy)
You're the Pits (Dave Kelly)
Odd Job Man (Jo Ann Kelly)
Mrs Rita (June Tabor)
Hilda's Cabinet Band (The Watersons)
Force on the Workforce (Keith Hancock)
The Jute Mill Song (June Tabor)
Master and Servant (Dave Kelly & Hilary Fletcher)
Oh I Swear (Richard Thompson)
The Guernsey Kitchen Porter (Michael Marra)
Good with my Hands (Clive Gregson & Christine Collister)

A brilliant album!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Peg
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 01:45 PM

James Connolly

Tired of Working

Song of Choice

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: cujimmy
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 04:32 PM

Patience Kershaw. a song about a young girl working in a coal mine in Halifax ( West Yorkshire ) in 1842 is very discriptive of the conditions children worked in ( Englands Little Slaves - Richard Ostler mp ) those times - well worth a listen.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 06:29 PM

The Frozen Logger

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Galatians2:20
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 12:24 AM

16 Tons (Tenessee Ernie Ford and others) Solidarity Forever (Seeger and others)

There are bunches more, but those are 2 of my real favorites.

Peace,

2:20

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 11:03 AM

Someone asked some time ago (but I didn't see an answer), Anyone got the words to the theme of the Charie Drake tv series "The Worker" ? Something along the lines of

Well I gets up in the morning when it's ---- O clock
Strong as a heffalump, steady as a rock,
With a nice cup of tea, a little round of toast
I do the best I can,
Still I'm only doing what a bloke should do,
'Cos I'm only a working man

Well I gets to work each morning when the clock strikes Eight,
I'm always punctual, never ever late....

The above from memory, and I would love to see the whole thing, if anyone has it.

Also suitable, and always good for a laugh, Flanders & Swann's "The Gasman Cometh"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: namedbard
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 11:14 AM

pete seeger used to sing a song by a farmer named Les Rice? called "the banks are made of marble" or John McCutcheons(he sang it anyway) "we shall rise" which is a wonderful working people, religious, revolutionary song. I am loooking for the chord pattern for it, desparately, thanks

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 24 May 03 - 12:37 AM

Between the Wars: Billy Bragg.
King of Rome :June Tabor

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: DMcG
Date: 24 May 03 - 01:52 AM

Here's another couple of lines I remember from Charlie Drake's "The Worker" merged in with Nigels.


Well I gets up in the morning when it's ---- O clock
Strong as a heffalump, steady as a rock,
With a nice cup of tea, a little round of toast,
"The Sporting Life", and "The Winning Post",
I gets all nice and tidy, then I toddles off to work,
I do the best I can,
Still I'm only doing what a bloke should do,
'Cos I'm only a working man.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 24 May 03 - 03:45 AM

What about "we poor labouring men" english trad I think. Points out that often the indians have more value than the chiefs ( whoops sorry should that be little native americans have more value than the native americans in charge!!!) Whatever it's a good song. Havn't heard it for years.

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From:
Date: 24 May 03 - 08:35 AM

Another song which deals with the working person, Rita MacNeil's Working Man

Subject: RE: Songs celebrating the working man/ woman
From: Alba
Date: 24 May 03 - 09:22 AM

Millworker by James Taylor.
"...and it's me and my machine for the rest of the morning, and the rest of the afternoon and the rest of my Life."