Songs about the working class

[Sean of the Shed]

John Lennon - Working Class Hero

Pulp - Common People

Suede - Trash

Any more?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Songs about the working class

Most of the tracks on Springsteen's Nebraska. Plus My Home Town, Factory, The River and several others.

Country music is the motherlode for songs on this subject, like Hard Workin' Man by Brookes and Dunne. Folk too, Joe Hill for example.

[G-Man]

Songs about the working class

Merle Travis - Sixteen Tons

[Janik]

Songs about the working class

A classical piece, but Fanfare for the Common Man by Copeland

[historyman]

Songs about the working class

Amor de Cosmos wrote:

Country music is the motherlode for songs on this subject, like Hard Workin' Man by Brookes and Dunne. Folk too, Joe Hill for example.

I was gonna say that - surely by definiton a hell of a lot of folk music would be defined or inspired by the working classes.

[adams house cat]

Songs about the working class

A couple of favorites:

'Draggin' The Line' - Tommy James
'Detroit City' - Bobby Bare
'Its My Life' - The Animals

Too many to list them all.

Much of the Manics work.

[evilC]

Songs about the working class

Probably more than half the output of New Model Army (in their own way).

[Felicity, I guess so]

Songs about the working class

Much of The Redskins' oeuvre.

Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Patti Smith's Piss Factory

[Amor de Cosmos]

Songs about the working class

Ferron's Shadows on a Dime is a good one.

And no one's mentioned Billy Bragg yet so I will.

[delicatemoth]

Songs about the working class

Huey Lewis & The News - Walking On A Thin Line and Working For A Living.

The Fall - Industrial Estate, Prole Art Threat, Kicker Conspiracy, Container Drivers...

[Mumpo]

Songs about the working class

Livin' on a Prayer

[Jah Womble]

Songs about the working class

Some random suggestions:

'Never 'ad Nothing' Angelic Upstarts (and most other songs of theirs)
'Snookeroo' Ringo Starr
'We Gotta Get Out of This Place' The Animals
'Jarrow Song' Alan Price
'Up the Junction' Squeeze
'9 To 5' Dolly Parton
'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' Brian & Michael

I was going to suggest Stevie Wonder's 'Living For the City' - but I think that hails from below the poverty line...

(Errm, 'Jack and Diane' by John Cougar Mellencamp?)

[ooh aah]

Songs about the working class

adams house cat wrote:

A couple of favorites:

'Draggin' The Line' - Tommy James
'Detroit City' - Bobby Bare
'Its My Life' - The Animals

Too many to list them all.

Much of the Manics work.

Probably not as many Manics songs as you'd think. Design For Life obviously is, but whilst their songs are overtly political, not that many are about working class people. Maybe because so many of their songs are antagonistic towards the people they're against (Richey's stuff especially)

[MsD]

Songs about the working class

Amor de Cosmos wrote:

And no one's mentioned Billy Bragg yet so I will.

He was at a do here yesterday, commemorating the Cable Street riot ... we left before he and the Men They Couldn't Hang played, because it was a rarely beautiful day, and we wanted a picnic. I fashioned an anarchist pamphlet into a sort of cushion so I could sit on the pavement and drink my Pimms cocktail without getting dirty.

Anyway ... the song I was going to suggest has already been mentioned. Bah.

[MsD]

Songs about the working class

Hard Day's Night by The Beatles.

There you go.

Y Venceremos by Working Week.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Songs about the working class

Matthew & Son — Cat Stevens

Welcome to the Working Week — Elvis Costello

Friday on My Mind — The Easybeats (bit thin maybe)

Handbags & Gladrags — Rod Stewart, Chris Farlowe et al

[MsD]

Songs about the working class

Hard Working Man by Captain Beefheart.

I'm very fond of Worker Man by Patra, which I took to be an encouragement to men to do an honest day's graft ("man is not a man if not a worker man...). I'm now not entirely sure it's about that sort of work at all.

[I.Wright]

Songs about the working class

Good call on y Venceremos MsD.

That song was on a video I bought/got from the NME in the eighties. Full of good stuff it was, but I foolishly loaned it out, never to be seen again.

Anyway, Elvis Costello - Shipbuilding.

[MsD]

Songs about the working class

I.Wright wrote:

Good call on y Venceremos MsD.

That song was on a video I bought/got from the NME in the eighties. Full of good stuff it was, but I foolishly loaned it out, never to be seen again.

Which version did you have? I have versions by Working Week on their own, and with Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt (and a Latin American singer whose name I forget) - a jazzed-up version that is by far my favourite. I only have it on vinyl or would offer to copy it for you.

[E10 Rifle]

Songs about the working class

If you're talking about Billy Bragg's 'songs about ver working class', I'd go for his early kitchen-sink stuff as much, if not more, than the obvious 'Power in a Union' style political rabble rousers. Think 'This Guitar Says Sorry', 'From a Vauxhall Velox, Lovers Town Revisited, and their ilk

[The Exploding Vole]

Songs about the working class

Taylor needs to drop in with some HMHB here.

[MsD]

Songs about the working class

Deeper Love (the house/garage track later made famous by Aretha Franklin) has lyrics about a tough, working life.

[I.Wright]

Songs about the working class

MsD wrote:

Which version did you have? I have versions by Working Week on their own, and with Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt (and a Latin American singer whose name I forget) - a jazzed-up version that is by far my favourite. I only have it on vinyl or would offer to copy it for you.

I'm pretty sure it was Working Week on their own. The video's listed here. And thanks for the kind offer, I didn't know of the Tracey Thorn/Robert Wyatt version.

[VTTBoscombe]

Songs about the working class

Well the Stones had two off Beggar's Banquet, "Salt of the Earth" and "Factory Girl" ( "wearing scarves instead of hats " , love that) .
With C&W songs, Blues must have a good call on working class woes -
Trouble is I can only think of Zep rip offs; but they seemed to have a lot of working long hours eg "Since I've been loving You" and the lass at home not giving some love back.(or not a Whole Lotta Love anway)

"Hard day's Night" claims the original La's were hard working fellas, like dogs they worked, and like logs they slept.

[Jon]

Songs about the working class

Ewan McColl (and many other folk singers) spring to mind. As does Harlan Man by Steve Earle.