album cover
What Works Is
album cover
What Works Is was released on April 17, 2001 by HighTone Records as a part of the album Borderland
ReleasedApril 17, 2001
LabelHighTone Records
LanguageEnglish
BPM79
Melodicness
Acousticness
Valence
Danceability
Energy

Music Video

Music Video

Lyrics

I used to work with a guy named Frankie Acosta
We were butter strippers down at the Challenge Creamery
Stripping the cardboard off seventy pound cubes of butter
Yeah, it was hot back then, summer of 1963
And Frankie 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 working for the city of Inglewood
Running the chipper, chipping limbs off of trees
I worked with a guy named Crazy Dave Macklin
And one day he almost ran a tractor over me
We were out chopping weeds near South Central
When the riots broke out and the sky turned fiery red and brown
I called up my girlfriend on a payphone and said
"Baby, I love you, but I think God's gonna finally burn Gomorrah 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 driving a rose truck
Santa Barbara midnight to L.A. Fifth and Main
All jacked up on coffee, cheap speed and donuts
Walking around the L.A. flower market in the rain
And every morning I'd eat breakfast at the Pantry down on Figueroa
The waiters were always old-time ex-cons
Then we'd load the truck 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
Every time I see the sun rise on the ocean
I think of L.A. back in 1968
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
I used to work with a guy named Frankie Acosta
Written by: Thomas George Russell

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