Click on the title to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Woody Guthrie performing "Talking Hard Work Blues". Enough, Woody! I got tired just listening to the amount of work you did.
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
Woody Guthrie - Talking Hard Work Lyrics
Album: Vol. 1-This Land Is Your Land
While we are on the subject of hard work, I just wanted to tell you that I am a man who likes hard work.
I was born working and I worked my way up by hard work.
I ain�t ever got no where, but I got there by hard work.
Work of the hardest kind.
I been down and I been out
I been disgusted I been busted and I couldn�t be trusted.
I worked my way up and I worked my way down
I been drunk and I been sober.
I been baptized and hyjacked.
Worked my way in jail and I worked my way outta jail
Woke up a lot of mornin�s, didn�t know where I was at.
The hardest work I ever done was when I was tryin� to get myself a worried woman to help ease my worried mind.
I�m gonna tell ya just how much work I had to do to get this woman I was tellin� you about
I shook hands with 97 of her kinfolk and her blood relatives and I done just the same with 86 people whos� just her friends and her neighbors
I kissed 73 babies and put dry pants on 34 of em� well as others
Done this same thing well there are a lot of other things just like this.
I held 125 wild horses and put saddles and bridles on more than that
Harnessed some of the wildest and craziest teams in that whole country
I rode 14 loco broncos to a stand still
And I let 42 hound dogs lick me all over, 7 times I�s bit by hungry dogs and I was chewed all to pieces by rattlesnakes and water moccasins on 2 river bottoms
I chopped and carried 314 arm loads of stove wood
109 buckets of coal
Carried a gallon of kerosene 18 miles over the mountains
Got lost � lost a good pair of shoes in a mudhole
And I chopped and weeded 48 rows of short cotton
13 acres of bad corn
I cut the sticker weeds out of 11 back yards
All on account of cuz I wanted to show her that I was a man and I liked to work
I cleaned out 9 barn lofts
Cranked 31 cars, all makes and models
Pulled 3 cars out of mud holes, and 4 or 5 out of snow drifts
I dug 5 cisterns of water for some of her friends
Run all kinds of errands
Played the fiddle for 9 church meetin�s
I Joined 11 separate denominations
I joined up and signed up with 7 best trade unions I could find
I paid my wages, um, a, dues 6 months in advance
I waded 48 miles of swamps and 6 big rivers
Walked across 2 ranges of mountains and crossed 3 deserts
I got the fever, Sun stroke, Malaria, blue, moonstruck, skeeter bit, Poison Ivy and the 7-year itch and the blind staggers
I was give up for less, lost and dead a couple of times
Struck by lightning, struck by Congress, struck by friends and kinfolks well as by 3 cars on highways A lot of times in people�s hen-houses
I been hit and run down run over and walked on knocked around.
I�m just sittin� here now tryin� to study up what else I can do to show that women that I still ain�t afraid of hard work
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here.
Woody Guthrie - Talking Hard Work Lyrics
Album: Vol. 1-This Land Is Your Land
While we are on the subject of hard work, I just wanted to tell you that I am a man who likes hard work.
I was born working and I worked my way up by hard work.
I ain�t ever got no where, but I got there by hard work.
Work of the hardest kind.
I been down and I been out
I been disgusted I been busted and I couldn�t be trusted.
I worked my way up and I worked my way down
I been drunk and I been sober.
I been baptized and hyjacked.
Worked my way in jail and I worked my way outta jail
Woke up a lot of mornin�s, didn�t know where I was at.
The hardest work I ever done was when I was tryin� to get myself a worried woman to help ease my worried mind.
I�m gonna tell ya just how much work I had to do to get this woman I was tellin� you about
I shook hands with 97 of her kinfolk and her blood relatives and I done just the same with 86 people whos� just her friends and her neighbors
I kissed 73 babies and put dry pants on 34 of em� well as others
Done this same thing well there are a lot of other things just like this.
I held 125 wild horses and put saddles and bridles on more than that
Harnessed some of the wildest and craziest teams in that whole country
I rode 14 loco broncos to a stand still
And I let 42 hound dogs lick me all over, 7 times I�s bit by hungry dogs and I was chewed all to pieces by rattlesnakes and water moccasins on 2 river bottoms
I chopped and carried 314 arm loads of stove wood
109 buckets of coal
Carried a gallon of kerosene 18 miles over the mountains
Got lost � lost a good pair of shoes in a mudhole
And I chopped and weeded 48 rows of short cotton
13 acres of bad corn
I cut the sticker weeds out of 11 back yards
All on account of cuz I wanted to show her that I was a man and I liked to work
I cleaned out 9 barn lofts
Cranked 31 cars, all makes and models
Pulled 3 cars out of mud holes, and 4 or 5 out of snow drifts
I dug 5 cisterns of water for some of her friends
Run all kinds of errands
Played the fiddle for 9 church meetin�s
I Joined 11 separate denominations
I joined up and signed up with 7 best trade unions I could find
I paid my wages, um, a, dues 6 months in advance
I waded 48 miles of swamps and 6 big rivers
Walked across 2 ranges of mountains and crossed 3 deserts
I got the fever, Sun stroke, Malaria, blue, moonstruck, skeeter bit, Poison Ivy and the 7-year itch and the blind staggers
I was give up for less, lost and dead a couple of times
Struck by lightning, struck by Congress, struck by friends and kinfolks well as by 3 cars on highways A lot of times in people�s hen-houses
I been hit and run down run over and walked on knocked around.
I�m just sittin� here now tryin� to study up what else I can do to show that women that I still ain�t afraid of hard work
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