What Works Is - Tom Russell: Song Lyrics, Music Videos & Concerts

What Works Is

283

Alternative Folk

What Works Is was released on April 17, 2001 by HighTone Records as a part of the album Borderland

Song Details

AlbumBorderland

Release DateApril 17, 2001

LabelHighTone Records

LanguageEnglish

Melodicness

Acousticness

Valence

Danceability

Energy

BPM79

OVERVIEW

LYRICS

Music Video

Music Video

Credits

PERFORMING ARTISTS

Tom Russell

Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals

Gurf Morlix

Electric Guitar, Background Vocals, Bass Guitar, Electric Bass Guitar, Harmonium

Andrew Hardin

Electric Guitar, Background Vocals, Percussion

Rick Richards

Drums, Percussion

Ian McLagan

Organ

Jimmy LaFave

Background Vocals

Joel Guzman

Accordion

Eliza Gilkyson

Background Vocals

Oliver Steck

Trumpet

COMPOSITION & LYRICS

Thomas George Russell

Thomas George Russell

Songwriter

PRODUCTION & ENGINEERING

Gurf Morlix

Producer, Recording Engineer

Lyrics

Yeah, I used to work with a guy named Frankie Acosta

We were butter strippers down at the Challenge Creamery

Strippin’ the cardboard off 70 pound cubes of butter

It was hot back then, summer of 1963

And Franky, man, he’d get so angry

He’d say, “See what the women make me do...”

Then he’d break off a splinter from a dirty wooden pallet

And stick it like a knife in one of them big old butter cubes

That’s what work is

That’s what love is

A little pleasure and a little misery

Now every time it gets hard out here

I think of L.A. back in 1963

Then I got a job workin’ for the City of Inglewood

Runnin’ the chipper, chippin’ limbs off of trees

I worked with a guy named Crazy Dave Macklin

And one day he almost ran a tractor over me

And we were out choppin’ weeds near South Central

When the riots broke out and the sky turned fiery red and brown

And I called up my girlfriend on a payphone and said, “Baby, I love you, but

I think God’s gonna finally burn Gomorrha down.”

And she said

“That’s what work is

That’s what love is

You build a house of straw and the flames lick the sky.”

Now every time I fall in love out here

I think of L.A. back in 1965

I finally got a job drivin’ a rose truck

From Santa Barbara, Midnight, to L.A. 5th and Main

All jacked up on coffee, cheap speed and donuts

Walkin’ around the L.A. flower market in the rain

And every time I’d eat breakfast at The Pantry down at Figueroa

The waiters were always old-time ex-cons

Then we’d load the trucks back up with empty rose boxes

And drive on up the coast through the California dawn

That’s what work is

That’s what love is

Two eggs over easy on a T-Bone steak

And every time I see the sun rise over the ocean

I think of L.A. back in 1968

I used to work with a guy named Franky Acosta…

Written by: Thomas George Russell

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