ummm, you can’t have a list like this without merle haggard, the king of workin’ class songs, c’mon use your head a little bit,

No David Allen Coe “Take this Job and Shove It!”??? I ain’t workin’ here no more.

I notice no rap songs about working on the list. How ’bout that?

Rush fell to #21?

You’re right, Lennox. It’s racism !!!

“Blue Bayou” – Linda Ronstadt/Roy Orbison

isnt the entire rakes cd about work?
great list

More: “Big Boss Man”-Jimmy Reed/”Chain Gang”-Sam Cooke/”Blue Sky Mine”-Midnight Oil/”Blue Money”-Van Morrison/”One Last Payment”-Clint Black/”The Work Song”-Maria Muldaur/”Runnin’ Behind”-Tracy Lawrence/”Workin’ For MCA”-Lynyrd Skynyrd/

Fail. it’s supposed to be the greatest and if that’s so when did loverboy become good

Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now – The Smiths

‘I was looking for a job and then I found a job/ Heaven knows I’m miserable now’

Who Gives A Damn- Sham 69

Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
Tool – Hooker with a Penis

DEVO: WORKING IN A COAL MINE

Cursed Male – Porno for Pyros

RUSH should be # 21 AND 12.

Workin’ Man’s PhD-Aaron Tippin

I dont see “I dont like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats anywhere on this list. That and “Hard Days Night” are the first two that pop to mind.

Did the people who thought “Welcome To The Working Week” is a song about working also think that “Alison” is a romantic love song?

I believe we have forgotten two of the great working man songs: Roy Orbison – Working For The Man and Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Man. Come on people …

Working Class Hero is the number one work song? Say it ain’t so! It’s exceptional, and I also appreciated Green Day’s recent cover, overdubbing Lennon at the end.

Cursed Female – Porno for Pyros

Shame on us! Bang on the Drum by J. Geils Band! Bad form.

KILLINGFLOOR, I agree with Hard Days Night but I’m pretty sure I Don’t Like Mondays has nothing to do with working. There is Keep On Working by Pete Townsend

Workin’ On The Highway – Bruce Springsteen (from Born In The U.S.A.)

Some overlooked British titles:

Oasis-Cigarettes & Alcohol
Blur-Parklife (its in part about being unemployed)
Pulp-Common People

And a few others…

Talking Heads-Found a Job
The Replacements-I Need a Job

“Lennox | 9/4/2007, 6:11 pm EST

I notice no rap songs about working on the list. How ’bout that?”

Most likely because rappers don’t rap about work. They concern themselves with guns, cars, women, jewlery, and the occasional “in the ghetto with a lack of work so I’m slangin’ drugs, destroying my community even further so the next generation will have the same problem, but at least I got my chain” song. Oh and sometimes one about their Momma.

Odd, I only know Tennessee Ernie Ford’s version of “Sixteen Tons”

Odd, I only know Tennessee Ernie Ford’s version of “Sixteen Tons”

Fairweather Fan – One For The Road

Career Opportunities and Clampdown by the Clash

cigarettes and alcohol by some tiny band called oasis? the amount of hate the rolling stoned has for this band is simply hilarious. wait til we look back in thirty years to view a catalogue of songs that went unrivaled for 15 years.

For The Workforce Drowning by Thursday has some of the best lyrics I’ve ever seen about work.

As much as I hate these lists that RS churns out every two weeks or so, this list is very good. “Luxury” and “Working Man” and “Just Got Paid”? Nice. (And “Take This Job and Shove It” was made famous by Johnny Paycheck.)

Working in a Coal Mine – Devo (not sure who did the original)

Missing: Van Morrison’s “Cleaning Windows”

I’m not going to lie, Sufjan Stevens is probably the last person I would have thought about putting on the list. However, it definitely works

I’m truly shocked. No “Five O’ Clock World” by the Vogues….I think that song pretty much sums it up.

“What a Job,” by Devin the Dude is a great one.

Todd Snider “Looking for a Job”

kings/switchin to glide.

Todd Rundgren “Bang the Drum”!!!!!

You can add Cumberland Blues by the Grateful Dead, and Summertime Blues by the Who (by a nose — no Townsend jokes — over Eddie Cochran’s version).

With those two additions, you can kick off Loverboy and Styx, who should only be listed on toilet paper.

Factory—Bruce Springsteen

“Working for the Weekend”?
Seriously?
Loverboy at #2?
Yeesh!
That’s some shit I smell.

“Rag And Bone”- The White Stripes

“I don’t like Mondays” isn’t about work – it’s about a little girl who goes on a shooting spree.

Where’s the 9-5ers’ Anthem by Aesop Rock? He named the subsequently brilliant album that the aforementioned song appears on Labor Days. There Musical Jenius, not only do some rappers rap about work, some devote an entire album to the subject.

Slack Motherf**cker by Superchunk – “I’m working
But I’m not working for you!”

Pumpin 4 the man – Ween

Cold Chisel/Ian Moss – Bow River.

“I been working hard
Twelve hours a day
And the money I saved
Won’t buy my youth again”

Aussie classic !

Originally being from there, I have to point out that the Sufjan Song is “To the Workers of the Rock RIVER Valley…”

“Soup Is Good Food” – Dead Kennedys

Is there a better song about LOSING your job?

Low Budget – The Kinks

Two more:
“I don’t want to work I just want to Bang on the Drum all Day”–Todd Rundgren, so catchy too.

“Thursday (Here is why I did not go to work today)” By Harry Nilsson

Working Man Should Be Higher Than 21!!!

Rush is all the way down at # 21? I guess to be honest, I’m surprised they even made this list, since RS has always shunned them…RS, you eat the poo…

Rush should be higher… and what ab out Billy Joel’s Allentown?

How about the Police’s Syncronicity II? It’s (partly) about the rat race we know as work. Best Police song ever, to boot.

What about …Sting – We work the black seam…?

Ramones: It’s Not My Place (In The 9 to 5 World)

Rush’s Working Man is artifically low. It should be higher – at least 15 to 10.

Rush is way too low, so is Styx, they both kick Donna Summer’s AND Dolly Parton’s behinds, but as usual, Rolling Stone has no respect for Rush, never did, never will, and that is a damn shame!

The Smiths “Frankly Mr. Shankly”:

“Frankly, Mr. Shankly this position I’ve held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
I want to leave, you will not miss me
I want to go down in musical history.”

The Smiths’ “Frankly Mr. Shankly”:

“Frankly, Mr. Shankley, this position I’ve held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
I want to leave, you will not miss me
I want to go down in musical history.”

The Smiths’ “Frankly Mr. Shankly”:

“Frankly, Mr. Shankley, this position I’ve held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
I want to leave, you will not miss me
I want to go down in musical history.”

Rush are the best band in the world and deserve more respect. Should have been number 1.

The usual RS diss on Rush. Amazing this rag has lasted this long, with the amount of hate it seems to have for actual good music. What a joke, as are all their so-called “best of” lists.

I’ll jump on the “Rush is too low” bandwagon…

I’m with Seth The Stallion. No ‘Take This Job and Shove It’? I thought it’d be number one before I opened the link. God forbid a dead Beatle shouldn’t top the list. (And the Paycheck version is the definitive one.) What about Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfu–er”?

No Bellboy?

No Bellboy?

“Custom Concern” by Modest Mouse.

Gotta go to work.
Gotta go to work.
Gotta have a job.

custom concern for sure. great song

How could ‘Five O’Clock World’ by The Vogues be left off the list?!?!

“Night” by Bruce Springsteen
“Seventeen” by Sex Pistols-(I don’t work, I just speed!)

How could you forget “Salt of the Earth” by the Stones?!

let’s drink to the hardworking people…

A tangential list would be songs about quitting your job, such as Bob Dylan’s “Changing of the Guard”:

Gentleman, he said,
I don’t need your organization.
I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
Or else your hearts must have the courage
of the Changing of the Guards.

Rush fans:
please be kind to us normal people
and shut up
thank you

Rush fans:
please be kind to us normal people
and shut up
thank you

the living end – i want a day

yea, all I gotta say is only one bruce song? You could practically make a top 25 list of bruce working songs almost all of his have some element of working towards them…. a few of the top ones would be
1.) factory
2.) youngstown
3.) working on the highway
4.) the promise
5.) night
6.) car wash
7.) open all night
8.) the new timer
9.) out on the street
10.) badlands
11.) born to run

Take This Job and Shove It should be No. !!!!

Emily- please get a life. And listen to some music.

who you talking to joe?
that ain’t the real emily.

Where is “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” by the Animals??

Wtf is a Rush song doing on the list, RS doesn’t recognize talent!

Oh wait…it’s one of Rush’s least sophisticated songs, a basic hard rock song made to appeal to white trash and the lowest common denominator like most of the songs on this list, the kind of “normal”, person, that is, unintelligent and ignorant vulgar people like emily, no wonder.

Anyway, why is Loverboy at number 2? Wtf? Not only is it ultimate cheese, it’s only got one line that deals with work, the rest is disjointed nonsense.

And I agree the Styx song is too low on the list (that song is all about the brute, barely understandable, IQ of less than 120, and high school drop out working man lol).

Pariah Dog: get a sense of humor. get a life. and get that giant branch out your ass.

Pariah Dog needs to get laid!

i don’t like rush

RUSH “Working Man” Yeah!!!

why didn’t “cursed male” make the list?
bunch of boring mainstreamers.

Are you kidding me?

Anyone who watches Weeds knows that

Dan Reader – Work Song

should have been on that list

Are you kidding me?

Anyone who watches Weeds knows that

Dan Reader – Work Song

should have been on that list

This list is a joke. No ‘Money for Nothin’ or ‘Take this job and shove it’? Come on.

Bob Seger – Feel Like a Number

Wow, this list reads like a Clear Channel playlog. I’d say maybe 1/5 of these songs actually capture what it is to be a working citizen. The rest is vanilla studio crap written by someone else, made to pander to the folks that buy up the albums.

I can’t stand Country, but if there ever was a genre that captures the working man/woman’s daily trials, it’s Country.

Parton – 9 to 5

Everyone knows this one!!! They made a damn movie out of it.

Salt of the Earth by the Stones

Down On The Farm by Little Feat.
Simple Man by Bad Company.
Both good tunes about folks with shit on their boots.

The main reason many of these songs are on this list is that they charted high on the Billboard lists and were commercially successful. The songs that everyone else (the working class) have chosen did not do so well. They are just as good if not better… “Working for the weekend”??? Puuuleeez! When did they become great?
And the fact that Dolly Pardon and Donna Summer are on the same list as Rush or Bob Dylan is a total joke.
Oh, I could go on, but I gotta go to work.

I just want to bang on a drum all day…

I appreciate Huey Lewis & the News making it in at 13 with “Workin’ for a Livin’”, but what about “Couple Days Off”????

Uh, how about Take This Job and Shove It by Johnny Paycheck???!!!

What nobody mentions Jimmy Barnes “Working Class Man”?

What nobody mentions Jimmy Barnes “Working Class Man”?

Agree with hoyem Bruce could alone fill list from 1-25.
And Pariah Dog, I can relate to your RUSH comments to a point.
Avid RUSH fan here, but don’t insult blue collar workers as white trash and ignorant. I so happen to be one(blue collar that is!) also enjoy classical, folk and bluegrass. And Working Man is a great work anthem.I’ve been to every RUSH tour in Cleveland since 1980.

Why aren’t there any songs or comments about putting in a good days work for a good days pay? What a sad reflection on society by RS and everyone who has posted so far.

unemployable – pearl jam

Real Worker, any suggestions?
Theres plenty of honesty in the music of Bruce Springsteen.
And being a “Real Worker” myself nothing like a reward come home and having a ice cold beer for a honest day’s work Rush Working Man prePeart basic stuff still truthful.

i hate rush

there, i said it
(sorry rush fans…they are talented, but i was unvoluntarily exposed to an overkill of it)

Great selection of songs, but I have to admit that I don’t know some of these songs. Anyway, thanks for including Donna Summer in your top 25. The song is about hard working women, but I think it also includes the male gender. Rock on, Donna.

What about take this job and shove it by Johnny Paycheck?

50 scuks

Roy Orbison – Working For The Man should clearly be on this list.

How is it possible that Take This Job and Shove It by Johnny Paycheck didn’t make the top 25?

No Roxanne??

There’s a suspicious lack of Hardcore tunes here:

I Want More – Suicidal Tendencies
Clocked In – Black Flag
Antidote – Token Entry

Summertime Blues

“The Factory” – Warren Zevon
“Goddam Job” – the Replacements
“Making Plans For Nigel” – XTC

By the way, I’ll take ANY of those three over ANYTHING by Loverboy or Rush….

…been chippin’ them rocks from dawn ’til doom…

Easy Wind by The Dead…Pigpen lives on.

geez..Barnes, working class man. OK kids find the american idol connection. Average White Band, work to do, and five a’clock world, Hal Ketchems version is sweet.

wheres jimmy barnes-working class man on this list it surely belongs there

Keep the Customer Satisfied… Simon & Garfunkle

Work to do
Average White Band

Work to do
Average White Band

the smiths – heaven knows im miserable now

sade – when am i going to make a living

I would definately put “Chain Gang” by Sam Cooke on this list.

I would definately put “Chain Gang” by Sam Cooke on this list.

Hardrock Miner – Cowboy Junkies
Don’t worry about the government – Talking Heads

and, fo realz,

Private Dancer – Tina Turner

What? Rappers rap about WORK? That’s not racist dude. It is the for letter word they DON’T use.

As for the RUSH argument… STOP! They are not the greatest thing since white bread. Dolly? Has more hits and written more hits than many on the list including rush.
Forget songs about unemplyed this is about WORKING!
How about a song we all sung when we were little… “I’ve been working on the railroad..”

What about “Big Bad John”.
I’m just saying.

What? Rappers rap about WORK? That’s not racist dude. It is the for letter word they DON’T use.

As for the RUSH argument… STOP! They are not the greatest thing since white bread. Dolly? Has more hits and written more hits than many on the list including rush.
Forget songs about unemplyed this is about WORKING!
How about a song we all sung when we were little… “I’ve been working on the railroad..”

What about “Big Bad John”.
I’m just saying.

You forgot Hard-fi’s Cash Machine! It’s fairly new compared to the rest of these but one of the most honest lyrical depictions of a young person’s initiation into a working world!

LOL! You guys are a hoot! Thanks for makin me laugh! Friday I’m in love – The Cure

maybe a stretch but how about It’s 5 O’Clock somewhere Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett