Version 2, with suggestions added:

1. Elvis Costello – Welcome to the Working Week
2. John Cougar Mellencamp – Rain on the Scarecrow
3. Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band – Harlan Man
4. Bruce Springsteen – Working on the Highway
5. They Might Be Giants – Minimum Wage
6. Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons
7. Tom Waits – I Can’t Wait To Get Off Work
8. The Creation – Painterman
9. Johnny Cash – One Piece at a Time
10. Loretta Lynn – Coal Miner’s Daughter
11. Palace Music – Work Hard, Play Hard
12. Uncle Tupelo – Graveyard Shift
13. King Missle – Take Stuff from Work
14. Police – Dead End Job

Clicky on the more to see the commentation…

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I found Springsteen’s “Working on the Highway” track from Born in the USA — while I have a certain, special, special place in my heart for “Glory Days”, “Working on the Highway” is more on-target for this comp.

Hmm… I’m currently reviewing “Allentown” by Billy Joel. Undecided at the moment. (update: negative.) In regards to Kevin’s suggestions of Loverboy and Johnny Paycheck…. well, I’m trying my damnedest to stay away from the album-oriented FM five-oh-clock standards. Gary — Living on a Prayer? Wow. I know you listen to that as you take the train into the salt mines over there in Japan, but it ain’t gonna make it on this comp.

Now. About FLASHDANCE. No, nevermind.

Jackson’s choice of “Welcome to the Working Week” by Elvis Costello has supplanted to top spot on this comp, because it’s perfect in its rockitude. I’ve also moved “Graveyard Shift” to the end of the list, as it appropriately caps the whole thing.

RE: The Ani DiFranco issue. I enjoy Ani DiFranco, I really do. Between Kelly and I, I think we own a handful of CDs. However, Ani DiFranco is a bit of a compilation-killer. I’m trying to maintain the chugga-chugga of the workingman’s day here.

I’m listening to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5″ at the moment. It’s a great pop song, but referring back to my five-oh-clock frenzy rule earlier, it will be sadly absent.

I also checked out Van Morrison’s “I’ve Been Working”, but it just doesn’t jive with me. Sorry. Also, he mentions making love to someone. Yeesh. Pee-cha-whoo-won-kee Chew-baa-kaa.

Ah, yes. Oingo Boingo’s “Wild Sex (in the working class)”. I am suffering this one at the very moment. It certainly has the driving beat I’m looking for, but no. Certainly not. Waaaatching the gears move! (it does rock a little bit there)

I haven’t been able to find Orbison’s “Working for the Man”, or Haggard’s “Workingman Blues”, but I’m trying.

Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was considered for this comp, but frankly, it would only be depressing and long.

Nugent’s “Workin’ Hard, Playin’ Hard” is about to be previewed, as is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Workin’ for MCA”. I’ve heard the latter, but I’m going to give it a second chance. I am at the moment listening to John Prine’s “Paradise”, but it’s not quite work-themed enough. Oooh! Skynyrd just came on… “Workin’ for MCA” is good. Hmm… it is up for contention. Okay, The Nuge is out.

Just listened to King Missile’s “Take Stuff from Work”. I think it works well… perhaps as some sort of “hidden track”. Tom Wait’s “I Can’t Wait to Get off Work (to See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)” is fantastic. It’s going on.

Red Hot Chili Pepper’s cover of Bowie’s “Working Class Hero”? Negative.

Devo’s “Workin’ In A Coal Mine”? Eh, no. Ike & Tina’s “Proud Mary”? Hmm… Man, if there was a version that was just the “rough” second half — it’d be on here.

Hah. Okay. The theme to Laverne & Shirley! Yah! No, not really. More later.

Just added The Police’s “Dead End Job”. Also, considering Kevin Spacey’s speech from American Beauty (where he quits).

i was thinking about a theme for a compilation CD yesterday — “Workingman’s Blues” I think it will be called. So far, I’ve got a couple of songs on it.

1. Uncle Tupelo – Graveyard Shift
2. John Cougar Mellencamp – Rain on the Scarecrow
3. Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band – Harlan Man
4. Bruce Springsteen – Glory Days
5. They Might Be Giants – Minimum Wage
6. Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons
7. The Kinks – Rush Hour Blues
8. The Creation – Painterman
9. Johnny Cash – One Piece at a Time
10. Loretta Lynn – Coal Miner’s Daughter
11. Palace Music – Work Hard, Play Hard
12. Tina Turner – Proud Mary

Hmm.. perhaps there is a better Springsteen song… but anyway. Suggest some other songs in the comments. Lucky contestants will get a shabbily decorated CDR of this comp.

Today at work, I received this memo from our commander-in-chief:

Gentlemen

Some of you know that the urinal in the Corvus men’s room will occasionally get stuck in the “flush” position and overflow onto the floor. When it occurs (once or twice a year at this point), the only remedy (short of shutting off all water to the building) is the following:

1. Grab or grasp the flathead screwdriver above the bathroom’s fluorescent light fixture.
2. Remove the chrome “nut” (no comments necessary) – that should be only finger tight – from the front of the urinal plumbing.
3. Turn the embedded screw clockwise until the water to the urinal is shut off and the overflow ceases.
4. Look down at your now-wet shoes and quietly mutter “damn”.
5. With the screwdriver, tap on the bulbous area behind the nut (again – no comment necessary) to loosen any hard water particles that may have caused the overflow in the first place.
6. Carefully – turn the water back on, replace the nut and go on about your business. If for some reason, it begins to overflow again, shut it back off, make and post appropriate signage and contact the local authorities.

By working together comrades, we can assure a dry shoe future for ourselves and future generations.

(And by the way, if someone accidentally removes the official Corvus men’s room flathead screwdriver from it’s appointed place, we may find ourselves, literally, up sh*t creek without a paddle – well… p*ss creek anyway.)

BTW, I should note that where he mentions “turning the water off to the entire building” is not only funny, but entirely true — and yes, we scrambled to find a screwdriver the first couple of times it happened.

When developing a website — as I often find myself doing — one has to populate the various systems you create with “dummy data”. Some people like using random latin, some people use quotes from eccentric authors. Me? Well, sometimes I just make up odd little passages. This is one of my favorites (I came up with it yesterday while coding a “Careers” section of a clients website):

Well, i’ll have to tell you this, Bobby. It ain’t the most glorious profession on the face of God’s green, but there is a certain zen quality about it. Do you know what I mean? Well, maybe you do, I don’t know. I can never tell from that blank stare of yours. One day, you might be back there scraping some burnt gravy off the bottom of a stainless steel pot, and some song that you’ve heard for years comes on the radio. You’ve never really paid attention to it until now, because scraping the days remains off of a soon-again-to-be-spoiled pot is just not that interesting. Well, in the midst of all these dishes that will be dirty tomorrow, you realize what that song is saying. And you realize why you are washing dishes — not that you realize how you came to be there, but why you are being there. *Knock* knock*! Oh, yes, ahem — Bobby. Why don’t you come in and have a seat.

I tried finding example of test data that have gone embarassingly public. I received acclaim for naming my primary test persona for a site we did for Evenflo “Slapdash O’Halloran”, but that’s really my extent.