Items19The creator’s order
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9 to 5Parton used her fingernails to work out a ticking sound that reminded her of a typewriter. The song goes from getting out of bed and making coffee to a shift where someone else gets credit. That office rhythm makes the complaint feel like something the workers have to live through again tomorrow.0 - 2
Wichita LinemanThe county lineman looks along the road for another break and listens to the line itself. As his thoughts turn to someone he misses, he’s still judging weather and whether the wire can take the strain. The song lets a person think about two things at once while he works.0 - 3
She Works Hard for the MoneyThe woman in the song looks out for someone who could use a smile, even as she waits to get off her feet. Summer said the idea came from finding a tired restroom attendant at a restaurant. That encounter gives the chorus about pay an actual shift and a person who has to work it.0 - 4
El aradoA farmworker grips the plow and presses it into the earth. Jara makes a connection between the furrows in the ground and the trails that sweat leaves on the worker’s body. The hope in the song comes through someone who knows how much effort it takes to get seed into the ground.0 - 5
DignityTwenty years with the council have made the man who sweeps the street part of its daily life. Ricky Ross gives him a specific plan for the money he sets aside. He wants a dinghy he can sail up the west coast. The boat feels possible because the song has already shown how patiently he works toward…0 - 6
More Than a PaycheckYsaye Barnwell follows what a worker carries home from a shift, including hazards such as asbestos and radiation. The voices keep returning to the idea of bringing something home as if they were talking about a regular paycheck. That familiar phrase gets heavier each time the singers name what else…0 - 7
Peg and AwlThe cobbler sings through a succession of years as a machine takes over the work of putting soles on shoes. Even the names of his hand tools become part of the refrain. When he imagines putting them down for good, it sounds like a change in how he spends every working day.0 - 8
Pastures of PlentyGuthrie follows a farmworker from harvesting in California and Arizona to gathering hops in Oregon. The route is made up of one job after another, each with a crop and a place attached to it. On this performance recording, his spoken lead-in makes clear whose point of view the song takes.0 - 9
Sixteen TonsA coal miner starts early and spends the day loading a quantity he can measure in tons. The company store is the detail that makes the arithmetic come out differently for him than it does for the employer. Ford’s unhurried delivery gives the man time to tell you what a whole day’s work buys him.0 - 10
Working In The Coal MineDorsey starts the shift at five in the morning. By the weekend the miner’s too tired for the fun he might have had. Listen for the hard little knocks in the groove. They give this account of getting worn out a cheerfully insistent rhythm of its own.0
