This album salutes the African American workers. As Jaqueline Jones wrote last year in her article Black
Workers Remember published by the American Prospect; it is one of the great ironies of American labor
history that enslaved workers toiled at a wider variety of skilled tasks than did their descendants who were
free. Slave owners had an economic incentive to exploit the multifaceted talents of blacks in the craft shop
as well as in the kitchen and field. But after emancipation, whites attempted to limit blacks to menial jobs.
Throughout the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, blacks as a group were barred from
machine work within the industrial sector, and from white-collar clerical and service work.
Modernization wore a white face. Focusing on the city of Memphis, Tennessee, we offer a story about
African American men and women workers who literally risked their lives on the shop floor, day in and day
out, trying to provide for their families.
01. Louis Jordon - Workin' Man (Turner) Tengerine 45 TRC 926
02. Buster Brown - John Henry (Robinson, Brown, Lewis) Fire 1020
03. John Lee Hooker - I Lost My Job (Hooker, Besman) Lauren 45-362
04. Long Tall Lester - Working Man (Robey) Duke 197
05. Val Martinez – Payday (Maurer, Kaplan) RCA Victor 47-8273
06. Wilbert Harrison – Off To Work Again (Harrison) Neptune 123
07. Jimmy Reed – Big Boss Man (Smith, Dixon) Vee Jay VJ 380
08. St Louis Jimmy - Hard Luck Boogie (Oden) Herald 407
09. Chico Leverett - Work Work (Leverett) Bethlehem 45-3062
10. B.B. King - Hard Working Woman (King) RPM 338
11. Esquerita – Laid Off (Esqerita, Arnold) Capitol F4145
12. Louisiana Red - Working Man Blues (Minter, Levy, Glover) Roulette R25200
13. Little Willie Littlefield – Happy Pay Day (Holmes) Modern 20-754
14. Tommy Youngblood – Laid Off My Job Too Long (Mcewan) Newport 45-NP-100
15. B. Brown And His Rockin’ McVouts – Hard Working Man (Brown) Vest 827
16. Big Bill Broonzy – Moppers Blues (Broonzy) Mercury ZEP 10065
17. Bobby Williams – Working Man (Williams) Dynamite DY 1008
18. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Auto Mechanic Blues (McGhee) Nixa Jazz NJE 1060
19. B. K. Anderson ?– The Minimum Wage (Solomon, Glaser, Glaser) Swirl 111
20. Chuck Berry – Let It Rock (Anderson) Chess 1747
21. Oscar Brown Jr - Work Song (Brown Jr, Adderley) Columbia 4-41977
22. The Heartbeats – I Found A Job (Carter) Roulette R-4054
23. Smiley Lewis – Blue Monday (Bartholomew) Imperial 45-5268
24. Fats Domino – Blue Monday (Bartholomew, Domino) Imperial X5417
25. Mississippi Matilda - Hard Working Woman (Williams) Bluebird 6812
26. Preacher Stephens – Unemployment Blues (Butler, Stephens) Fran 45-789
27. Lightnin’ Hopkins – Don’t Need No Job (Hopkins) Herald H-456
28. Jay McShann – Hard Working Man’s Blues (McShann, Witherspoon) Philo P109
