What Work Is chords by Tom Russell

Chords with lyrics

Tom Russell - What Work Is


Intro:
C majorC A minorAm C majorC A minorAm C majorC A minorAm C majorC A minorAm C majorC

Verse 1:
                        A minorAm    C majorC
Yeah, I used to work with a guy named Frankie Acosta
                        A minorAm     C majorC
We were butter strippers down at the Challenge Creamery
                           A minorAm
Striping the cardboard off of seventy pound cubes of butter
       C majorC                A minorAm
Yeah, it was hot back then summer of nineteen sixty-three

Verse 2:
               FF
And Frankie, man, he'd get so angry
     C majorC              G+G  A minorAm
He'd say, "See what the women make me do"
                   FF
Then he'd break of a splinter from a dirty wooden pallet
          C majorC                  G+G
And stick it like a knife in one of those big old butter cubes


Chorus:
      A minorAm
That's what work is
      FF
That's what love is
     A minorAm            G+G  FF
A augmentedA little pleasure and a little misery
     G+G      A minorAm
Now every time it gets hard out here
      C majorC            G+G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-three
   A minorAm   C majorC
Hey, hey


Verse 3:
                       A minorAm
Then I got a job working for the city of Englewood
      C majorC                A minorAm  C majorC
Running chipper, chipping limbs off of trees
                      A minorAm  C majorC
I worked with a guy named Crazy Dave Mackland
                      A minorAm
And one day he almost ran a tractor over me

Verse 4:
                   FF     C majorC
We were out chopping weeds near South Central
                           G+G        A minorAm
When the riots broke out and the skies turned a fiery red and brown
                           FF
And I called up my girlfriend on a payphone and said "Baby, I love you
      C majorC                      G+G
But, ah, I think god's gonna finally burn Gomorra down

She said


Chorus:
      A minorAm
That's what work is
      FF
That's what love is
      A minorAm                   G+G   FF
You build a house of straw and the flames lick the sky
     G+G       A minorAm
Now every time I fall in love out here
      C majorC              G+G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-seven


Instrumental:
A minorAm  FF  A minorAm  G+G  FF G+G A minorAm  C majorC  G+G  A minorAm   C majorC


Verse 5:
               A minorAm      C majorC
I finally got a job driving a rose truck
                 A minorAm        C majorC
Santa Barbara, midnight, to L.A., Fifth and Main
                     A minorAm
All jacked up on coffee, cheap speed and doughnuts
          C majorC                A minorAm
Walking around the L.A. Flower Market in the rain


Verse 6:
                         FF         C majorC
And every morning I'd eat breakfast at The Pantry down on Figueroa
                   G+G    A minorAm
The waiters were always old time, ex-cons
                         FF
Then we'd load the truck back up with empty rose boxes
          C majorC                 G+G
And drive on up the coast through the California dawn


Chorus:
      A minorAm
That's what work is
      FF
That's what love is
       A minorAm        G+G    FF
Two eggs over easy on a T-bone steak
   G+G       A minorAm
Every time I see the sunrise on the ocean
      C majorC              G+G
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-eight


Chorus:
      A minorAm
That's what work is
      FF
That's what love is
     A minorAm            G+G  FF
A augmentedA little pleasure and a little misery
     G+G      A minorAm
Now every time it gets hard out here
      C majorC              G+G    A minorAm
I think of L.A. back in nineteen sixty-three