Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Are There Any Songs About Getting Fired, or Losing a Job?

I can think of a few songs about "working stiffs"--Bruce Springsteen's work comes to mind, "She Works Hard For the Money", "Manic Monday". But when I was fired, the only song that I could think of was Daughtry's "No Surprise", and that was mainly for the video:

Two blue-collar folk are having troubles, and it affects their relationship. The song is really about a breakup, though--it doesn't have anything to do with the economy. Daughtry said he wanted the video to reflect what people were really going through, and while it features the young and pretty, it is realistic and bleak (if glamorized) in a way that most music videos aren't. They key lyrics in this interpretation come in the bridge: "If I could see the future and how this plays out / I bet it's better than where we are now / But after going through this, it's easier to see the reason why"

So this is what I played. It wasn't too appropriate, but I was at a loss. "Breakaway" floated in my head weeks later, but that's about, uh, breaking away, starting a new life, completely different than what I needed. Where was "I lost my job, and this sucks"?

2 comments:

John said...

Oh, I'm sure I have a few somewhere. Right now the only one I can think of is "Every Day Is Sunday" by The Slackers, which is all about how much it sucks to be unemployed. I've forgotten how to do "A" tags, but you can hear/see it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ-EREzbix0

John said...

I remember another one that's sort of about losing your job: "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" by George Thorogood.

Also, "Evaluation Day" by The Planet Smashers is about performance reviews, which can sometimes immediately precede firings.

"History of a Boring Town" isn't really about being fired, but you might find it appropriate nonetheless. There's a great live recording of it on youtube here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9eJwoI02wM