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Songs about Working

Whistle while you work - or hum, or even sing along if you know the words. These are songs about work, not that work is something you usually want to sing about. But it's a necessary fact of life, so you might as well have a song to go along with it anyway. Now where are those songs about getting paid?

Working songs actually have a long history. The earliest slaves who built the pyramids and the rowers who piloted ships across the Mediterranean from ancient Rome had longs they would sing while working - it helped them all work together to a beat. More modern times bring us the songs first forged by slaves working in the fields of the Southern Plantations. Now, hopefully, your job doesn't make you feel like a slave. But you can still have solidarity with all your working peers.

• 
  9 to 5 Dolly Parton

  "Workin' 9 to 5
  What a way to make a livin'
  Barely gettin' by
  It's all takin'
  And no givin'
  They just use your mind
  And they never give you credit
  It's enough to drive you
  Crazy if you let it"

• 
  9 to 5 (Morning Train) Sheena Easton
• 
  A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done Sonny and Cher
• 
  A Hard Day's Night Beatles

  "It's been a hard day's night
  and I've been working like a dog
  It's been a hard day's night
  I should be sleeping like a log
  But when I get close to you
  you do the things that you do
  to make me feel all right"

• 
  A Working Man's Prayer Tex Ritter
• 
  Allentown Billy Joel

  "For the promises our teachers gave
  If we worked hard
  If we behaved
  So the graduations hang on the wall
  But they never really helped us at all
  No they never taught us what was real
  Iron and coke
  And chromium steel
  And we're waiting here in Allentown"

• 
  American Pie Don McLean

  "But February made me shiver
  With every paper I'd deliver
  Bad news on the doorstep"

• 
  Army Ben Folds Five

  "Grew a moustache and a mullet
  Got a job at chick-fil-a
  Citing artistic differences
  The band broke up in may
  And in june reformed without me
  And they’d got a different name
  I nuked another grandma’s apple pie
  And hung my head in shame"

• 
  Back on the Chain Gang Pretenders, The
• 
  Career Opportunities Clash, The
• 
  Conventioneers Barenaked Ladies

  "How can I just avoid a conversation?
  So I wait, come in late. It'd be great
  If you transferred out of state"

• 
  Diary of a Working Man Blackfoot
• 
  Don't Give Up Peter Gabriel
• 
  Factory Vines, The
• 
  Fired Ben Folds
• 
  Five O'Clock World Vogues, The
• 
  God Damn Job Replacements, The
• 
  Handy Man James Taylor
• 
  Hard Hat and a Hammer Alan Jackson

  "But there's nothing wrong with a hard hat and a hammer
  Kind of glue that sticks this world together
  Hands of steel and cradle of the Promised Land
  God bless the working man"

• 
  It's Five O'Clock Somewhere Alan Jackson

  "The sun is hot and that old clock is movin' slow,
  An' so am I.
  Work day passes like molasses in wintertime,
  But it's July.
  I'm gettin' paid by the hour, an' older by the minute.
  My boss just pushed me over the limit.
  I'd like to call him somethin',
  I think I'll just call it a day."

• 
  Jackson Cannery Ben Folds Five
• 
  Lovely Rita Beatles
• 
  Maggie's Farm Bob Dylan
• 
  Manic Monday Bangles, The

  "Have to catch an early train
  Got to be to work by nine
  And if I had an airoplane
  I still couldn't make it on time
  'Cause it takes me so long
  Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
  Blame it on the train
  But the boss is already there"

• 
  Money for Nothing Dire Straits

  "We gotta install microwave ovens
  Custom kitchen deliveries
  We gotta move these refrigerators
  We gotta move these colour TV's"

• 
  Never Is Enough Barenaked Ladies

  "I never spent a single day in retail
  telling people what they want to hear
  telling people anything to make a sale
  Eating in the food court
  with the old and the bored"

• 
  Paperback Writer Beatles

  "His son is working for the Daily Mail,
  It's a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer,
  Paperback writer"

• 
  Peace of Mind Boston
• 
  Shift Work Kenny Chesney

  "Shift work, tough work for the busy convenience store clerk
  Two feet that hurt, going insane
  She's mad at some lad
  Drove off and didn't pay for his gas and he won't be the last"

• 
  Small Town Southern Man Alan Jackson

  "Callous hands told the story
  For this small town Southern man
  He gave it all to keep it all together
  And keep his family on his land
  Like his daddy, years wore out his body
  Made it hard just to walk and stand
  You can break the back
  But you can't break the spirit
  Of a small town Southern man"

• 
  Snowball in Hell They Might Be Giants

  "Money's all broke, and food's going hungry
  If it wasn't for disappointment
  I wouldn't have any appointments
  Have a nice day, you want it when?
  Have a nice day, have a nice day"

• 
  Summertime Blues Alan Jackson
• 
  Take This Job and Shove It David Allan Coe

  "Take this job and shove it I ain't workin' here no more
  My woman done left and took all the reason I was working for
  Ya, better not try and stand in my way
  Cause I'm walkin', out the door
  Take this job and shove it I ain't working here no more"

• 
  Takin' Care of Business Bachman Turner Overdrive
• 
  Taxman Beatles
• 
  The Class of '57 Had Its Dreams Statler Brothers, The
• 
  The Downeaster "Alexa" Billy Joel
• 
  We Work the Black Seam Sting
• 
  When I Fall Barenaked Ladies
• 
  Workin' at the Car Wash Blues Jim Croce
• 
  Working Class Hero Green Day
• 
  Working for the Weekend Loverboy
• 
  Working Man Rush
• 
  Working Man Imagine Dragons
• 
  Youngstown Bruce Springsteen

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