dbt tracks # 125 - This Fucking Job

[Clams]

Everybody loves a song about working a crappy job, but this one seems to cut a level or two deeper. Pretty sure this was the first track released in advance of The Big To-Do, about a week or two prior to Birthday Boy. Love the Ray McKinnon video (alternatively titled to get by the censors).



Working this job is a kick in the pants
Working this job is like a knife in the back
It ain't getting me further than the dump I live in
It ain't getting me further than my next paycheck

Working this job's running out of excuses
Working this job is like lighting two fuses
It's like a dead end where a roadmap is useless
Until I'm dead and there's nothing to show for my uses

Nobody told me it'd be easy or for that matter be so hard
but it's the living and learning that makes the difference and makes it all worthwhile

Working this job there's nothing left but to hate it
I won't get as far as my daddy made it
Ain't getting me further for all my striving
than the dead end I live on and the piece of shit that I'm driving

Nobody told me it'd be easy or for that matter be so hard
but it's the living and learning that makes the difference and makes it all worthwhile

Sometimes I dream that I had aimed my life in different ways
But there was nothing to show me a way to get out of this place
So I just did what my Daddy did before me
Only to find the only door I found was closed to me

Working this job, it sucked when I had it
Now it is gone and I am learning what bad is
Now I'm trying to hang on to the worst of places
A family can't live on these fast food wages

Nobody told me it'd be easy...

[RolanK]

Love it!

[Smitty]

I dig it, but it's towards the bottom of my favorite Patterson songs.

[RMD]

I really like this one. At the time I was ready for some loud guitar after the Dirt Underneath tour and the mostly mellower BTCD.

[Swamp]

This one will always be special to me. I didn't like the video above though.
But that's probably cause I entered a video clip in the video contest before
I read the rules and was disqualified

It was good seeing my buddy Leo again
One day I'm gonna finish it.

[Tyler]

This is one of those songs I really don't care for about 95% of the time, but the other 5% I really fucking like it.

[Sterling Big Mouth]

I love this song, and I think the video is high art.

Some reasons why:

Just another reason why DBT gives meaning to the term, political band. Who else talks about foreclosure?

I love how Ray throws his rubber glove on the windshield after he quits Burger World.

I love how the band only appears on the small scraggly TV.

I love how Ray looks at the TV while he's making an incredibly poor decision.

I love how Neff's solo comes in during the scuffle.

I love how I think I see a Freed poster on the red house as Ray's on the lamb.

I love how the video ends with nothing but neighborhood sounds (birds and dogs), when that's all that Ray's character wanted in the first place.

Just a fantastic job by everyone involved - casting, acting, cinematography, everything.

And just about the song:

It's got that big R&R sound that makes me love TBTD. Unfortunately, I've still never heard it live.

I love Jay's back up vocals and keys during the "all the worth while."

Neff's counter melody throughout the entire thing is just nasty.

Finally, does anyone know what is the back up lyric is in the second chorus?

[Gang Green]

I haven't watched the video in a long time, but wasn't there two versions? I liked the ending to the Rated PG version where cops had the Burger World bags after the main character was arrested.

[Smitty]

I haven't watched the video in a long time, but wasn't there two versions? I liked the ending to the Rated PG version where cops had the Burger World bags after the main character was arrested.

Yup.

[colodogdoc]

Finally, does anyone know what is the back up lyric is in the second chorus?

It's Jay and Neff singing "this fucking joooooob", which is the only time the actual f-word is used in the song, which makes it extra cool.

This song and the video came out at a time when I was working for someone who was basically the Antichrist with a stethoscope, so I took great delight in walking around the office singing various pieces of this song while not actually letting on what the song was about. My boss got fired 6 months afterwards, so TFJ will always occupy a warm spot in my heart.

[beantownbubba]

I think this one's underrated and underplayed. Should have been at least a radio hit when it was released - it captured the zeitgeist pretty much dead on. Using the "f word" in the title probably didn't help, but it's just SO DBT, how can you not find it endearing?