What Work Is chords by Tom Russell

Tom Russell - What Work Is



Intro:
C  Am  C  Am  C  Am  C  Am  C

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

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


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


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


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

She said


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


Instrumental:
Am    F    Am    G    F  G  Am   C   G   Am     C


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


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


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


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