Amusing Work Songs??

Subject: Lyr Add: MOLLY MALONE (parody)
From: paddymac
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 11:17 AM

Alice - here's a Molly parody I wrote a few years ago which usually gets a chuckle or two.

If Dublin you'll visit, down on Grafton Street,
You'll find there a statue of Molly Malone
With great bronze bouzoukis, all shiny and bright,
From the strikin' of tourists by day and by night.
etc.

Now it may be the porter that causes the strokin',
Or maybe they're hopin' 'twill bring them good luck,
Whatever the reason, when you stand in that place,
You'll swear that she's got a big grin on her face.
etc.

Now the Dubs are the fun ones, an irrev'rent lot,
They do show their love in peculiar ways.
They have taken dear molly clear into their hearts,
and that's why they call her "The Tart With The Cart"
etc.

Hope you enjoy it.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 09:05 AM

...and for one who found his work amusing ("Once he did arrest a man and laughed until he cried"): The Laughing Policeman (NOT folk).

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: GeorgeH
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 08:56 AM

On a slightly more serious but still (fairly) humerous note there's the likes of "The pit owner and the collier's wife".

G.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 08:53 AM

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, all, those are great suggestions. I'm going to be laughing all day looking at the lyrics!

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 06:13 AM

Is it too much of a stretch to include Shel Silverstein's "The Man Who Turns the Damn Thing Off and On"?

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 06:38 PM

ohh.."Keep That Wheel a'Turning" is great! Says a LOT!..*grin*

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 06:05 PM

Ginny Haley's(?) "I Am an Old Cowpuncher"
"The Cowpuncher's Waltz"
"Keep That Wheel a-Turning"

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: campfire
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 01:37 PM

Don't know that I'd say its amusing, but today I could sing "Take This Job and Shove It".

campfire

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bert
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 01:11 PM

That's the way. Perfect.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Alice
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 01:07 PM

Kind of like with a wet sponge in a handkerchief, so when you wring it in your hands, wobbling the voice and casting mournful eyes to heaven, your hankie streams with tears splashing on the floor? ok, that would be amusing.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bert
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 12:59 PM

Alice,

It should be sung with exagerated sentimentality, Kind of like when you've had a few too many.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: marion
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 11:39 AM

There's a song in "Rise Up Singing" about a woman being expected to make the coffee for all in her office... I think it's called "Coffee". The tune is Lord of the Dance (aka Simple Gifts)

The chorus:

Coffee, the bane of my life
I am not paid to be an office wife
You've got hands and a modicum of sense and health
You can make your goddamn coffee for yourself.

Good song - look it up if you have the book.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Alice
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 11:35 AM

Ok, Bert, I bite... how do YOU sing it??

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bert
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 10:52 AM

ALice,

I guess it's how you sing it.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Alice
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 10:24 AM

Bert.... Molly Malone is amusing? Do you know a funny verse for it?

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: teller
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 09:57 AM

Shortest one I've come across:- 'I can't read and I can't write, But that don't really matter, Because I lives in Honiton, And I can drive a tractor!' So there! Teller.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bert
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 09:15 AM

Here's a few more...

Manura Manyah
When I'm Cleaning Windows
Molly Malone
Liverpool Barrow Boy
Jellied Eels
All my life I've wanted to be a Barrow Boy
Chinese Laundry Blues
Come Inside
The Lincolnshire Poacher
The Miller of Dee
The work of the weavers
The Great American Railway
I'm an Old Cowhand
The Twang Man
Washing up
Click go the shears
Coney Island Washboard
The Buffalo Skinners
The Ballad of Billy Kershaw

Bert

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 07:04 AM

The best example I know of is Jeremy Taylor's 'Prawns in the Game' which is all Pommie shop steward speak. I posted here a long time ago, but wouldn't have a clue as to how to find it again. It's delicious master piece. Regards John

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: AndyG
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 05:26 AM

On a Monday Morning (Cyril Tawney) from the DT is another good "I hate work song".

AndIdotooyG

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 04:08 AM

They Call It Stormy Monday... (OK not funny but an "I hate work song"!

As well as the parodies from the DT listed which have white-collar jobs there is Frank Crumit's "The Man Who Sells insurance" the lyrics to which I posted earlier this year.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: paddymac
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 02:50 AM

Susan Marie - "Why Paddy Isn't at Work Today"? Could you be so kind as to post the lyrics? I suspect it's the same as, or very similar to, the "Sicknote" or "The Brick Song". The only recordings I've heard of it are by the Dubliners and the Corries, but there are probably others.

Subject: Lyr Add: On Mondays I Never Go to Work^^
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 12:20 AM

I learned it this way:

On Mondays I never goes to work,
On Tuesdays, I stays at home,
On Wednesdays, I never feel inclined,
Work is the last thing on my mind!
Thursday's an 'oliday, (shops all closed on Thursday afternoons)
And Fridays I detest.
It's too late to make a start on Saturday,
And Sunday is the day of rest.

London, 1958

Subject: Lyr Add: On Mondays I Never Go to Work^^
From: bigJ
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 05:30 PM

What about the English music-hall song :

On Monday I never go to work,
On Tuesday I lie in bed,
On Wednesday I stay at home, work is the last thing in my head,
On Thursday it is 'dole' day, (Unemployment pay)
And Friday I detest,
It's too late to go to work on Saturday,
And Sunday is the day of rest.

Short and pithy!

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Alice
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 05:12 PM

I was thinking of the parody of "Dark As A Dungeon" about the secretary, but when I looked in the DT with an @parody @work search, I found 26 songs. I don't think any of them are the secretary song I was thinking of.

1) AUSTRALIA'S ON THE WALLABY

2) BALLAD OF PARKWAY PATRIOT

3) BANKS OF THE CONDAMINE

4) BLOW YE WINDS IN THE MORNING (II)

5) THE BOLD LIBRARIAN

6) THE C.I.O. SONG

7) CASEY JONES - UNION SCAB

8) THE COMMUTER'S CORONACH

9) CONESTOGA ON THE JORDAN ROAD

10) THE DRAPES OF ROTH

11) DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK

12) EVERY MAN

13) FAREWELL AND ADIEU

14) THE FOREMAN'S JOB

15) FOUR POUNDS A DAY

16) HENRY THE ACCOUNTANT

17) I'VE BEEN RAILING AT THE WORKLOAD

18) THE JOLLY GRINDER

19) THE PROGRAMMER'S LAMENT

20) ROCKABYE BABY

21) SKIVING

22) SPERRY RAND

23) TEAMING UP THE CARIBOO ROAD

24) TWAS EFFICIENT AND COST EFFECTIVE

25) WHAT A FRIEND WE HAS IN RHODA!

26) THE WORK OF THE LANDLORD

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Bert
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 04:11 PM

My sweetheart's the mule in the mines
I drive her without any lines
on the bumper I sit, and I chew and I spit
all over my sweetheart's behind.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Amusing Work Songs??
From: MMario
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 04:01 PM

"Let Union Be" - actually a grange song - but it's a play on words....

Subject: Amusing Work Songs??
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 03:56 PM

WE've had a few threads about work songs and the labor movement, but they've been heavy on the serious songs. I'm looking for some more light-hearted songs that folks might like to sing at a light-hearted labor day celebration. So far I have "White Collar Holler", a parody called "Unions are a Girl's Best Friend", and "Why Paddy's Not at Work Today". Any other suggestions?