Origins: The Beast: Song of the Punch Press Operat

Subject: Origins: The Beast
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 05:20 PM

At least I think that is the title. Does anyone know who the artist is? I heard it on a LP from a 50s'-60s' folk group but I can't remember who. I have searched thru Amazon Music for every folk group and album I could find for the song but no luck. Here are the only scraps of lyrics I can remember:

I got a job in a factory
feeding a beast that don't like me.
It don't give a damn about how I feel
as long as I feed it its ration of steel.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: Peace
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 10:29 PM

Anything else you can recall (if not words, maybe the group)? About the group? Types of instruments? (The Fugs might have said that back then.)

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: GUEST,Ben Gunn
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 06:34 PM

No, I can't remember the group. It was on vinyl, purchased at a PX in Germany. Not a British group. I know, not very helpful. It may have been on a Hootenanny LP, but I don't think so, but the group was a contemporary of the Limelighters and Kingston Trio. However I have checked Amazon and I can't find any of their recordings with that song title.

A little of the chorus goes:
O beast, spare my hands,

Another partial verse:
should have been melted down twenty years back
but it feeds the boss and he loves that snack.

Thanx, anyway.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: Peace
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 10:16 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 07:43 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: GUEST,jl
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 10:02 PM

The Brothers Four recorded this.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 12:01 AM

"The Beast" AKA "Song of the Punch Press Operator."
There seem to be mp3 available. Google.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Beast
From: open mike
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 12:08 AM

you always get an answer at mudcat..
sometimes you have to wait a couple years..

Subject: ADD: The Beast (Brothers Four)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 03:21 AM

THE BEAST (SONG OF THE PUNCH PRESS OPERATOR)
Songwriter: ?

I got a job in a factory
Feeding a beast that don't like me.
It don't give a darn about how I feel
As long as I feed it its ration of steel.
   And pity the man who knows the grief
   That comes with the bite of that monster's teeth.
   Pity the man who knows the grief
   That comes with the bite of that monster's teeth.

Watch your mitts at the start of the stroke,
It's a re-peat killer, and will go for broke;
It shoulda been melted 'bout twenty years back,
But it feeds the boss, and he loves that snack.
   Oh, Beast, spare my hands,
   I'll use them to slay you if I get the chance.
   Oh, Beast, spare my hands,
   I'll use them to slay you if I get the chance.

There ain't no guards to slow up a man,
Keep your foot on the pedal and your eye on the ram.
If your hand should slip, why, the boss don't shout;
He just buys new fingers as he throws you out.
   There's plenty of hands to feed the jaws,
   The press don't stop when there ain't no cause.
   There's plenty of hands to feed the jaws,
   The press don't stop when there ain't no cause.

There ain't one man out on the press,
Who wouldn't quit if jobs weren't scarce;
But a man has to have his daily meal,
And that Beast's gotta have its cold, rolled steel.
   Deep inside remain the dreams
   That make us the masters of the machines.
   While deep inside remain the dreams
   That make us the masters of the machines.

Well, now, I got a job in a factory
Feeding a beast that don't like me.
It don't give a darn about how I feel
As long as I feed it its ration of steel.
   And pity the man who knows the grief
   That comes with the bite of that monster's teeth.
   Pity the man who knows the grief
   That comes with the bite of that monster's teeth.


Transcribed by ear from The Brothers Four Cross-Country Concert (1963)

I transcribed from an MP3, and couldn't find songwriter attribution.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: The Beast
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:01 AM

The Song of the Punch Press Operator Songwriters: Pete Seeger and Bernie Packer. Broadside Ballads vol. 2, Smithsonian Folkways, 1963.

The Beast (Song of the Punch Press Operator) Songwriter: Pete Seeger. Recorded by Brothers Four.

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: The Beast
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:04 AM

Information from allmusic.com.