Bang, Bang, Bangles: Hammer Tunes
So I wake up this morning to a monster racket out front: My neighbor, the "Doc," is having his roof replaced, and there are scads of shirtless fat guys hammering and tarring and whatever it is roof guys do. They look like a bunch of filthy pirates up there, and yet their taste in music shocks me. Instead of working to the Allman Brothers or AC/DC, the brutes are cranking the Bangles' Manic Monday. Some of them are actually singing along, too. ("Cause that's my fun day...") It's like a Mel Brooks skit. The next song is America's A Horse With No Name. More singing. That's just not right. Not right at all.
So on the way to work, I started putting together a playlist of better "working" tunes. Songs that a roof pirate can hammer to -- and relate to.
1) Up on the Roof -- The Drifters
2) Working for the Weekend -- Loverboy
3) If I Had a Hammer -- Pete Seeger
4) Take This Job & Shove It -- Johnny Paycheck
5) Working in a Coalmine -- Lee Dorsey
6) Here Comes the Hammer -- MC Hammer
7) Working Class Hero -- John Lennon
8) Working Class Man -- Jimmy Barnes
9) 9 to 5 -- Dolly Parton
10) Our House -- Madness
Sean Daly is the pop music critic for the St. Petersburg Times. His CD collection -- from Journey to Dylan, Prince to U2, Public Enemy to Stan Getz -- is much bigger and better than yours.
Working Man - Rush
Posted by: sparky | January 23, 2007 at 12:49 PM
40 Hour Week - Alabama
Posted by: Guy | January 23, 2007 at 02:33 PM
I Go To Work - Kool Moe Dee
Posted by: Mike T | January 23, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Workin' for a Livin' ... Huey Lewis and the news ...
Posted by: chase | January 23, 2007 at 07:40 PM
I would love to work to any one of those songs in continuous rotation, anything but the smooth jazz that they pump into my office. It's going to drive me to drink in 5, 4, 3...
Posted by: Ed | January 24, 2007 at 10:22 AM
Blue Collar Man -- Styx
Posted by: hellibrarian | January 24, 2007 at 10:25 AM
Are you sure a roof pirate really should be hammering nails to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5"? That's worse that "Manic Monday"! Those guys should be firing up "Ace of Spades" or something.
My favorite? "Working Stiff" by Melvern Taylor. Find it on iTunes.
Best non-working anthem has got to be "Bang on the Drum (all day)" by Todd Rundgren.
Anyway, I have to get back to work...
Posted by: P-Train | January 24, 2007 at 01:34 PM
The Roof is On Fire - Bloodhound Gang
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - The Beatles
(Yes! For the first time in my life, there's a joke to be made about that song... and I'm the one to make it!)
Posted by: Max | January 24, 2007 at 02:12 PM