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For Labor Day, songs about working.
John Henry was so proud of his work, he died proving he was better than a machine. There are a lot of versions of this old folk song, but this is the one that gives me chills. The hostility of John Henry’s boss is palpable; the musical arrangement is visceral, and nobody delivers the line “that ain’t nothin’ but my hammer suckin’ wind” better.
“End of the day, factory whistle cries / Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.” From Darkness on the Edge of Town, the darkest LP to hit #5 on the U.S. album chart that I can think of.
“You load sixteen tons, whaddaya get? Another day older and deeper in debt.”
It was Travis who wrote “Sixteen Tons,” which along with this other mining classic came out on an album titled Folk Songs of the Hills – on which Travis actually wrote seven of the eight songs. That’s okay, in a few years they really were folk songs, sung by everybody.
It’s not as tough as working in a mine, but Dorsey supported himself for years with an auto repair business, so he knew hard work.
Originally from an album of covers of Disney film songs. Waits strips away the fake Disney cheerfulness to show again that working in the mine is no fun. It’s not just in his vocal, either; the music clanks along grimly. It can now be found on last year’s fine Waits compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards.
Not that the original Cannonball Adderley version wasn’t fine, but with Paul Butterfield blowing mournful harmonica and slash-and-burn guitar solos by Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, this one’s grittier.
“I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you.”
“Go easy on a guy tryin’ to make life easy for you.” Some of the best guitar playing on this list, and that’s saying something.
“I know I need a small vacation, but it don’t look like rain / And if it snows that stretch down south won’t ever stand the strain.”
