Money and Work Songs

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Music can be very inspirational and motivating. When it comes to money and work we often need both. I listen to all types of music, often to relax or just calm my mind from the many things I might be focusing on in the moment.

I have written about the connection between music and money before, with the millions of songs in the world it’s hard not to have songs about these topics. Below is my latest list of money and work related songs. Happy listening.

work

Money Songs

If I had a Million Dollars – The Barenaked ladies – 1988

Best lyrics:
If I had a million dollars
(I’d build a tree-fort in our yard)

Moneytalks – AC/DC – 1990

Best lyrics:
A French maid, foreign chef
A big house with king size bed
You’ve had enough, you ship them out
The dollar’s up – down, you’d better buy the pound

Mo Money Mo Problems – The Notorious B.I.G – 1997

Best lyrics:
I don’t know what, they want from me
It’s like the more money we come across
The more problems we see

How to be a millionaire? – ABC – 1985

Best lyrics:
I’ve seen the future, I can’t afford it
Tell me the truth sir, someone just bought it

C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) – Wu-Tang Clan -1993

Best lyrics:
It’s been twenty-two long hard years of still struggling
Survival got me bugging, but I’m alive on arrival
I peep at the shape of the streets
And stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deep
A man with a dream with plans to make cream

Work Related Song

You can take this job and shove it – Johnny Paycheck – 1977

Best lyrics:
I been workin’ in this factory
For nigh on fifteen years
All this time I watched my woman
Drownin’ in a pool of tears
And I’ve seen a lot of good folks die
That had a lot of bills to pay
I’d give the shirt right offa’ my back
If I had the guts to say

Working 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton – 1980

Best lyrics:
Workin’ 9 to 5,
What a way to make a livin’
Barely gettin’ by
It’s all takin’ and no givin’
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you crazy
If you let it

Bang on The Drum All Day – Todd Rundgren – 1982

Best lyrics:
Listen to this
Every day when I get home from work
I feel so frustrated
The boss is a jerk
And I get my sticks and go out to the shed
And I pound on that drum like it was the boss’s head

Taking Care Of Business – BTO – 1973

Best lyrics:
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I’m self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day

What are your favorite money or work themed songs?

16 thoughts on “Money and Work Songs”

  1. I don’t know if this is a money song so much as it’s a bucking the system song, but one of our favorites is “Movin’ Out” by Billy Joel. 🙂 Great list, Brian, I’d forgotten about a lot of these oldies!

  2. I don’t know why but I love Rich Girl by Hall and Oates.

    You’re a rich girl, and you’ve gone too far
    ‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway
    You can rely on the old man’s money
    You can rely on the old man’s money
    It’s a bitch, girl, but it’s gone too far
    ‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway

  3. I’ve never seen lyrics from different songs on the theme of money laid out like that before. Amazing how similar they all are! Main message: work is imprisoning and never pays enough. There should be more songs about financial freedom! (New song list idea?)

  4. My favorite is “The Weather is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful” by Jimmy Buffett…because we all feel like escaping from the grind.

    “Well now that’s just the start of a well-deserved overdue binge
    Meanwhile back in the city certain people are starting to cringe
    His lawyers are calling his parents
    His girlfriend doesn’t know what to think
    His partners are studying their options
    He’s just singin’ and orderin’ drinks”

  5. Great list! We included a few of these titles in our contest for best quitting song, but Springsteen’s Born to Run was the winner.

    “Taking Care of Business” is the one I relate to most from commuting days in New York – “People pushin’, people shovin’.” Boy was that the truth! Every day when I returned home Mr. Groovy would ask me how many times I’d been body-checked.

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