Talking Hard Work

Talking Hard Work - Woody Guthrie

While we are on the subject of hard work

I just wanted to tell you

That I am a man who likes hard work

I was born working

And I worked my way up by hard work

I ain't ever got no where

But I got there by hard work

Work of the hardest kind

I been down and I been out

I been disgusted I been busted

And I couldn't be trusted

I worked my way up

And I worked my way down

I been drunk and I been sober

I been baptized and hyjacked

Worked my way in jail

And I worked my way outta jail

Woke up a lot of mornins

Didnt know where I was at

The hardest work I ever done was

When I was tryin to get myself

A worried woman to help ease my worried mind

I'm gonna tell ya just how much work I had to do to get this woman

I was tellin you about

I shook hands with 97 of her kinfolk and her blood relatives

And I done just the same with 86 people

Whos just her friends and her neighbors

I kissed 73 babies

And put dry pants on 34 of em well as others

Done this same thing well

There are a lot of other things just like this

I held 125 wild horses and put saddles and bridles on more than that

Harnessed some of the wildest and craziest teams in that whole country

I rode 14 loco broncos to a stand still

And I let 42 hound dogs lick me all over

7 times Is bit by hungry dogs

And I was chewed all to pieces by rattlesnakes and water moccasins on 2 river bottoms

I chopped and carried 314 arm loads of stove wood

109 buckets of coal

Carried a gallon of kerosene 18 miles over the mountains

Got lost lost a good pair of shoes in a mudhole

And I chopped and weeded 48 rows of short cotton

13 acres of bad corn

I cut the sticker weeds out of 11 back yards

All on account of cuz I wanted to show her

That I was a man and I liked to work

I cleaned out 9 barn lofts

Cranked 31 cars all makes and models

Pulled 3 cars out of mud holes and 4 or 5 out of snow drifts

I dug 5 cisterns of water for some of her friends

Run all kinds of errands

Played the fiddle for 9 church meetins

I Joined 11 separate denominations

I joined up and signed up with 7 best trade unions I could find

I paid my wages um a dues 6 months in advance

I waded 48 miles of swamps and 6 big rivers

Walked across 2 ranges of mountains and crossed 3 deserts

I got the fever Sun stroke Malaria blue moonstruck skeeter bit Poison Ivy

And the 7-year itch and the blind staggers

I was give up for less lost and dead a couple of times

Struck by lightning struck by Congress struck by friends and kinfolks

Well as by 3 cars on highways A lot of times in peoples hen-houses

I been hit and run down run over and walked on knocked around

I'm just sittin here now tryin to study up what else I can do

To show that women that I still ain't afraid of hard work