Friday Tunes: Working this Job (This Fucking Job)

Next week the Parkland Institute is hosting its annual conference in Edmonton. This year’s theme is People vs Profiteers: Demanding Justice and Equity. The keynote speaker is Guy Standing, who recently wrote The Precariat. His talk will be about the development of an underclass that largely rejects mainstream political establishments.

It is hard to find a tune exactly about that, but Working this Job (This Fucking Job) by the Drive-by Truckers come close. Musically, it is not really to my musical taste but it has an interesting story (wow, a music video with a story!), good acting (wow, acting in a video!) and the music serves more like a sound track to the story. Even with the music off, it makes a powerful statement about contemporary employment relations.



There is a second version of this video with a slightly different ending.

Workin' this job is a kick in the pants
Workin' this job is like a knife in the back
It ain't gettin' me further than the dump I live in
It ain't gettin' me further than the next paycheck

Workin' this job is like lightin' two fuses
Workin' this job is runnin' out of excuses
It's like a dead-end when a road map is useless
Until I'm dead and there's nothin' to show for my uses

Nobody told me it'd be easy
Or for that matter, it'd be so hard
But it's the livin' and learnin'
It makes the difference
It makes it all worthwhile
It makes it all worthwhile

Workin' this job, there's nothin' left but to hate it
I won't get as far as my daddy made it
It aint gettin' me farther for all my strivin'
In the dead-end I live or the piece of shit I'm driven' 

Nobody told me it'd be easy
Or for that matter, it'd be so hard
But it's the livin' and learnin'
It makes the difference
It makes it all worthwhile
It makes it all worthwhile

Sometimes I dream that I had aimed my life in different ways
But there was nothin' to show me a way to get me outta this place
So I just did what my daddy did before me
Only to find the only door I found was closed to me

Workin' this job, I thought it sucked when I had it
Now it is gone and I'm learnin' what that is
I'm tryin' to hang in to the worst of places
But a family can't live on these fast food wages

Nobody told me it'd be easy
Or for that matter, it'd be so hard
But it's the livin' and learnin'
It makes the difference
It makes it all worthwhile
It makes it all worthwhile

Workin' this job
Workin' this job
Workin' this job

-- Bob Barnetson