Tom Russell - What Work Is
[Intro]
C Am C Am C Am C Am C
[Verse 1]
Am C
Yeah, I used to work with a guy named Frankie Acosta
Am C
We were butter strippers down at the Challenge Creamery
Am
Striping the cardboard off of seventy pound cubes of butter
C Am
Yeah, it was hot back then summer of nineteen sixty-three
[Verse 2]
F
And Frankie, man, he'd get so angry
C G Am
He'd say, "See what the women make me do"
F
Then he'd break of a splinter from a dirty wooden pallet
C G
And stick it like a knife in one of those big old butter cubes
[Chorus]
Am
That's what work is
F
That's what love is
Am G F
A little pleasure and a little misery
G Am
Now every time it gets hard out here
C G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-three
Am C
Hey, hey
[Verse 3]
Am
Then I got a job working for the city of Englewood
C Am C
Running chipper, chipping limbs off of trees
Am C
I worked with a guy named Crazy Dave Mackland
Am
And one day he almost ran a tractor over me
[Verse 4]
F C
We were out chopping weeds near South Central
G Am
When the riots broke out and the skies turned a fiery red and brown
F
And I called up my girlfriend on a payphone and said "Baby, I love you
C G
But, ah, I think god's gonna finally burn Gomorra down
She said
[Chorus]
Am
That's what work is
F
That's what love is
Am G F
You build a house of straw and the flames lick the sky
G Am
Now every time I fall in love out here
C G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-seven
[Instrumental]
Am F Am G F G Am C G Am C
[Verse 5]
Am C
I finally got a job driving a rose truck
Am C
Santa Barbara, midnight, to L.A., Fifth and Main
Am
All jacked up on coffee, cheap speed and doughnuts
C Am
Walking around the L.A. Flower Market in the rain
[Verse 6]
F C
And every morning I'd eat breakfast at The Pantry down on Figueroa
G Am
The waiters were always old time, ex-cons
F
Then we'd load the truck back up with empty rose boxes
C G
And drive on up the coast through the California dawn
[Chorus]
Am
That's what work is
F
That's what love is
Am G F
Two eggs over easy on a T-bone steak
G Am
Every time I see the sunrise on the ocean
C G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-eight
[Chorus]
Am
That's what work is
F
That's what love is
Am G F
A little pleasure and a little misery
G Am
Now every time it gets hard out here
C G Am
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-three