I wrote this song about my hometown in Humboldt County, California. I grew up in a small working class mill town, went to school there too. I've seen what poverty, burnout, substance abuse, and intergenerational trauma has done to my community, and I blame capitalism. All I have to say is EAT THE RICH!
Lyrics
Intro poem:
The place I come from is quiet and quaint
though inside it screams from pain that's been locked away
where misery scatters across the walls of the local bars
where poor people come to escape a life they never asked for but one that was intended for them
carefully crafted a careless system was designed to oppress anyone who is not rich in dollars
in school we were raised by patriarchal textbooks that defined us as low skilled workers and then someone convinced us to build the jail cells we'd spend the rest of our lives in.
But you see, the working class is not just a bunch of sheep. They are beautiful birds whos wings have been clipped and locked away in cages
with cycles of violence and bottled up oppression kept on the shelf for special occasion every time we take a sip we complete another round in our spiral of hell, after all it was our body and soul we had to sell.
but it's not like anyone really gave us a choice and no one every taught us how to use our voice.
perpetuated by the rich man who steals from the poor and gives to himself this man will never understand the true meaning of wealth and if only he could understand the inconvenience of being in a working mans shoes then maybe he'd have something better than a positive attitude to prescribe for the working class blues
vs. 1
I work all day on the line
I come home I drink my whiskey
I wish my wife wasn't with me
oh cause she's talkin all the time
she ask too many questions after a long day at work
make me pick up my bottle and act like a jerk
oh cause I've been beated I've been cheated I've been lied to and abused
I ain't got no way to escape
cs. 1
My working class blues
oh my working class blues
cs. 2
son you better put your head down
and you better do your job
oh who do you think that you are?
you think you one of them white collard snobs?
you know somebody's gotta keep the lights on
upstairs in those office spaces
so you better get back in line
and you better stay in your places
if you don't like it well you know what you can do you
you can go home and yell at your walls about
cs. 2
your working class blues
oh your working class blues
cs. 3
I've been breaking my back
I've been working on the chain
oh but I know nobody gives a damn I know nobody cares about my pain
and all of my hard earned money had been sent off to the war
oh while back at home I've got a family that I can't afford
oh no the systems got me rigged got me dazed got me confused
it aint no wonder why I got
cs. 3
the working class blues
oh my working class blues
oh my working class blues
outro
oh I'm so sick of being lied to
somebody better get me what I deserve
oh you know we're all so sick of being lied to
somebody better give us
what we deserve
oh I've got the working class
I am
I am a working class man
I am a working class woman