Songs About Work & Opinions on Lil’ Wayne

Sound Opinions honors our nation's laborers with the best Songs About Work.

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Songs About Work

Despite the fact that most musicians spend their lives avoiding a "real job," there are a number of great songs about the drudgery and the glory of hard work. During this Labor Day episode Jim and Greg play their favorite Songs About Work.

Greg

  • The Animals, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place"
  • Van Morrison, "Cleaning Windows"
  • Bob Marley, "Night Shift"
  • The Jam, "Smithers-Jones"

Jim

  • John Lennon, "Working Class Hero"
  • The Clash, "Career Opportunities"
  • Lou Reed, "Don’t Talk to Me About Work"
  • The Flaming Lips, "Bad Days"

00:40:26 Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers

I'm With You

Once fresh faces in the frat punk world, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a heritage act at this point. Their 10th album I’m With You is one of many collaborations with superproducer  Rick Rubin. And it's the first with new guitarist  Josh Klinghoffer. Lead singer  Anthony Kiedis considers this a reboot, but Greg's having a hard time buying their new identity as a stadium ballad band. He misses the guitar virtuosity of John Frusciante, who quit in 2009. Flea remains an all-star bass player, but he can't save I'm With You. Greg says Trash It. Jim agrees with that sentiment, pointing to the lousy, mush-mouthed lyrics of Kiedis as his primary hurdle. This is not a sensitive band, and he would welcome a return to funk rock. Until then...Trash It.

Tha Carter IV Lil Wayne

Tha Carter IV

Lil Wayne is fresh out of Rikers with the 4th album in his Tha Carter series, Tha Carter IV. But curiously, he doesn't give much time to his jail experience. For the past decade, he's been one of the most successful rappers in the business, both with his releases and mixtapes, but also as an ever-present cameo fixture. Jim describes Weezy as an interesting producer, but he can't get over the hip-hop clich'es. Tell us about prison, he pleads. Without those insights, this is a Trash Italbum. Greg was surprised to find that the most interesting rapping on Tha Carter IV was not by Lil Wayne himself. Rather, guests like Andre 3000, Tech 9 and Busta Rhymes take the prize. So for those tracks alone, Greg says Burn It.

Dear Listeners,

For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!