A Workin’ Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today
Merle Haggard, “A Workin’ Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today
No one’s made a video yet for this song, and someone should.
For that matter, some mainstream female country star would have a huge hit by remaking this song as “A Workin’ Mom Can’t Get Nowhere Today”.
I don’t think Merle will mind if I publish the lyrics. this song is like my fuckin’ anthem
For years I’ve been busting my rear
To make a living
But it ain’t madeFor years I’ve been trying to
Pay off my bills
But they ain’t paidI owe every dime I make
To every soul I know
The farther up I reach
The farther down I go
And this old broken back of mine
Is all I’ve got to show
And anyway
A working man can’t get nowhere todayLord a workin’ man can’t get nowhere today
A workin’ man ain’t got no time to play
Today I worked my fanny off
And leave it lay
A workin’ man can’t get nowhere todayI pay my income tax
and the government gives back
What I got comin’
Lord but it ain’t muchI pay my child support
Cus I’m a law-abiding sort
And an easy touchI starve myself to death
Tryin’ to keep my family fed
I keep my budget tight
Tryin’ to get myself ahead
But I’ll still be deep in debt
On the day that I fall dead
That’s why i say
A workin man can’t get nowhere todayLord a workin’ man can’t get nowhere today
A workin’ man ain’t got no time to play
Last night I worked my fanny off
And leave it lay
A workin’ man can’t get nowhere today
It’s always funny when I see Republicans and conservatives pretend to be the party of the neglected working American, surrounding themselves with coutnry music and flags. What they’re doing is trying to appeal to a specific group of white people, hand in hand with the old “welfare queen” racist tropes. “You good white people you work, not like those lazy welfare receiving blacks.” Merle himself has played into this a few times when he was getting in touch with his inner cro-mag back in the 1960s.
But the fact is that songs like this are about poor and working poor people, who are both black and white (and every other color people come in). Songs like this are about the very people that Republicans and conservatives look down on, or treat as “useful idiots”. This song really DOES fit working moms. It fits people like the Latino immigrants who work manual labor in the plants and on the docks, people who have seen their lot get worse and worse with every passing year.
I’ll write more later.
