Welcome to my weekly mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Joining me once again as guest curator is my
former TuneStyles podcast co -host, Mr. Jay Sweet.
Jay, welcome back, man. Hello, sir. We're doing
this again, aren't we? Unfortunately, we are
back. Apologies to everybody. Indeed. But tonight,
we're going to be talking about a topic that,
and I'm going to go out on a limb here. This
is a topic you might know something about. Yeah.
Yeah. This is I think this is the most relatable
topic that I think you've done on this show because
everybody works. Of course. And, you know, this
is kind of it's kind of poetic because it was
through work that you and I met in radio. Yep.
So what better way to put together? a work week
anthems playlist than with somebody you used
to spend your work weeks with. Yes, sometimes
10, 12, 14, 92 hours a day. I vividly remember
the nights that we had to work overnight when
they turned the clocks back. And that was the
worst shift that you could land because at 3
a .m. you had to do that hour a second time.
So, Jay, what were you looking for? In the work
week anthem songs that you're bringing to the
table tonight. Well, a lot of this was for me,
just songs that kind of I think of that eat me
going for the crappy, sometimes very stressful
job that I have in the news business. And, you
know, I think I mentioned to you a few weeks
ago, I was watching the movie Idiocracy just
to prove to myself that it's not that bad. But
these are, yeah, I picked up a bunch of songs,
you know, that get you through the day. That's
pretty much the way that this should work. Yeah.
And my list kind of came together thinking about
all the songs that I grew up with that were kind
of targeted towards the quote unquote working
man and working woman. And a lot of that, you
know, I grew up in the 80s, so I'm going to be
probably going down that road a lot tonight.
But then outside of it, songs that kind of just.
are very on the nose about the work week. Some
of them are the obvious picks. Some of them are
not so obvious. So I kind of want to see what
kind of a balance we strike with this mix tonight.
There was certainly a number of, well, more than
a number. There was a great deal of careers in
the 80s and late 70s, right up until probably
the early 90s that really were built around this
very topic. A lot of people got some good careers
out of this, and I'm sure we'll cover a lot of
that tonight. And I think there are still songs
that are made about the working stiff. I mean,
heck, Rick Springfield had a whole album dedicated
to the working class dogs. In fact, I believe
he has a radio show now on Sirius XM called Working
Class DJ, and he gets to host that hour of programming,
which is great. And just proving the point that.
The guy should have retired aeons ago, and here
he is still doing work. Proving everybody wrong
and still kicking ass doing it, right? 100%,
yeah. Well, it's never been more appropriate
to use the next phrase that I use in every Mixtape
Curation episode, and this time it almost becomes
a dad joke in and of itself. Let's get down.
To business. Tonight, as I mentioned at the top
of the show, Jay and I will be curating a work
week anthems mixtape and we'll use the old cassette
deck approach. Jay, as my special guest, will
begin side A with his first song choice and then
I'll add a song that I feel best follows up that
choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing songs
until we've mapped out 10 songs for side A. We'll
then give our mixtape a proverbial flip. And
we'll map outside. Be only this time. I'll kick
things off with Jay choosing second. Our overall
goal for the episode is to craft the best work
week anthems mixtape possible through only 20
songs. At the end of the show, you could take
our conversation to the next level by visiting
the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com to give
our final mixtape a listen. via the embedded
playlist. And if you like what you're hearing
on the show, you can help me out by either telling
a friend, leaving the show a five -star review
wherever you're tuning in, or becoming a Patreon
mixtaper at patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape.
There you can enjoy ad -free episodes of the
show, become a future guest, and so much more.
And a few of the Patreon mixtapers chimed in
with songs they would use to kick off their workweek
anthems mixtape, and I want to give a few a shout
out. Christopher Stile chimed in with Huey Lewis
in the news a couple days off, calling it a banger
of a song, along with Loverboys working for the
weekend. Sherri Thomas chimed in with Donna Summers,
she works hard for the money. Tom Hutchinson
chimed in with C .W. McCall's Convoy, saying
there's nothing better than a Trucker Rebellion
song to start a mixtape. Chad LaMassa chimed
in with Johnny Paycheck's Take This Job and Shove
It. Philip Bergman chimed in with Billy Bragg
and the blokes Saint Monday. Ben from the Too
Vague podcast chimed in with Desmond Decker and
the Aces Israelites and Roy Orbison's Working
for the Man. Jen Fink chimed in with Rage Against
the Machines killing in the name of with the.
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me, section
serving as the inspiration for the choice. And
finally, Seeker chimed in with the Easy Beats
Friday On My Mind, saying their guitarist George
Young was the older brother to a pair of Youngs,
that being Malcolm and Angus of ACDC, along with
another Easy Beats member, Harry Vanda, who produced
many of ACDC's albums. Just as a reminder, if
you want to chime in for future My Weekly Mixtape
episodes, you can join the Mixtaper family at
patreon .com forward slash My Weekly Mixtape.
So, Jay, you've tumbled out of bed and stumbled
to the kitchen. You've poured yourself a cup
of ambition and you've yawned and you've stretched.
And now you're kicking things off for Side A.
I think that's how it goes. Yeah, I certainly
am not trying to face the light. Because when
I go to work, it's three in the morning. It's
still dark outside. But yeah, no, we're ready
to rock and roll here, quite literally. I think
some great picks by the listeners. That is fantastic,
some of the stuff that they were coming up with.
I tried to, given the fact that, like I mentioned
earlier, there are so many careers that were
made and albums dedicated to and songs that are
dedicated to The Working Stiff. I tried to know
that kind of stave off the fact that you and
I were going to hit a lot of these together,
a lot of the common ones. And I'm sure we'll
hit them and we'll talk about them when we get
there. But for the most part, I wanted to go
deeper into stuff that you may not know. So I
kind of delved into the 50s and 60s stuff. I
went into some yacht rock stuff. The thing that
I wanted to focus on was not country music, because
I think the entirety of the country music genre
is geared towards. working class people. And
there are some really good country music that
has, I think Alan Jackson's got song Toby Keith,
right? Had a tune and there's just a ton of them.
So rather than dive into it, we could make a
whole entire country album out of this topic
right here, but I want to go completely opposite
of that. And to start off this album, if you're
ready to rock and roll, I'm going to hit it hard
and fast with some skid row and slave to the
grind. Whoa. All right. Why not? I mean, it just
drives you in to a better mindset of, you know
what? Yeah, I'm doing something right now. I
may be menial low man on the totem pole, but
I'm working and I've got my nose to the grindstone
and I'm going to get that brass ring and I'm
going to be an operations manager. That's what
Sebastian was singing about, wasn't he? I'm pretty
sure, yeah. I'm not going to lie, dude. I actually
had Hailstorm's cover of Slave to the Grind in
my bank of songs, especially after all of the
brouhaha that went down this past spring when
Lizzie Hale sat in with Skid Row for four shows.
Holy Jesus, did she sound amazing with them.
Lizzie Hale is probably one of the best. taps
to replace the powerhouse that is sebastian bach
let's leave the problematic personality type
out of it but she is the full package like she's
just amazing on those vocals and i think just
the other day i went back and i think tiktok
had it where it was might have been i'll remember
that she did and that was amazing Yeah, there's
a bunch of live videos up on YouTube. If you
just search Skid Row, Lizzy Hale, LZZY, you'll
see some great footage from those four shows.
As of now, it's kind of put on hold, but she
said the doors always open down the road. So
who knows? I know Hailstorm's got a very busy
fall. Coming up for them, obviously, they're
one of the bigger hard rock bands on the planet
currently. So it might be hard for her to pull
double duty, but who knows what will happen.
Love the fact that you went with the original,
though. And man, I wasn't expecting to go this
hard right from the beginning. So I think I'm
going to go with something that kind of is a
little bit of a nod because Skid Row Singer has
covered this song. And I'm going to go all the
way back to 1974. And we're going to bring in
a pre -Neil Rush. And I'm going to go with Working
Man from their self -titled album. Back in 1996,
Sebastian Bach of Skid Row covered Working Man
with Jake E. Lee, Mike Portnoy. Billy Sheehan,
former My Weekly Mixtape guest, and Brent Allman
for the Magna Carta label's Working Man, a tribute
to Rush compilation. It's a sick, sick cover
if you haven't heard it. But even the original,
it's not what you expect when you hear the word
Rush. It's not the proggy side of Rush. This
is the Led Zeppelin, blues -based, hard rock
side of Rush. And this song stayed with the band.
all throughout their entire career all until
the last tour they were still playing working
man one of the few songs they kind of represented
through all eras of the band and coming out of
slave to the grind it's still heavy it's still
hard but i think it gives you a few different
directions you can go from here that is such
a great pick and i had it on my list as well
because again those these are the kind of the
deeper dives and If you're a huge fan of Rush,
then you know this stuff. If you're only a fan
of like Limelight and Tom Sawyer, like a casual
fan, you may not know the three meal per stuff
that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson put out. And
Working Man just, it is exactly as you said,
it drives, it rocks. And it's a great follow
-up to Slave to the Grind. Love it. And now I'm
going to throw it back to you. But first, I want
to mention episode 52, the Ultimate Rush playlist
with Steve from Something for Nothing, a Rush
fan cast who's also part of the Pantheon podcast
network. If you're a Rush fan or if you want
to learn a little bit more about Rush, Steve
is a wealth of knowledge. I highly suggest checking
that episode out. But now, Skid Row, Rush, track
three. What do we got? I'm going to stay in that
vein and I'm going to go all the way to the end
of this band. Sadly, this band's career with
a few new members and some tweaks and a little
help from an older member. Let's go to 2012s.
A different kind of truth. Wow. With beats working.
Wow. Wolfgang on the bass, little Wolfie. And
David Lee Roth comes back in on the lead vocals.
First of all, what a great album. I would think
a very underrated album. And sadly, again, we
lost Eddie way too soon. And, you know, having
deprived the world of more of that genius. Side
story, went to Heart and Cheap Trick here in
Chicago a few months ago. And Nancy came out.
The rest of the band kind of took a five. And
Nancy came out with an acoustic guitar and did
a tribute to Eddie Van Halen. Yep, for Edward.
Where she started off, yeah, for Edward. Oh my
gosh. And every hair on my arms right now talking
about it stood up straight because it was so
beautiful and so moving. It mixed 316 from For
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Top of the World,
and Jump. And it's got all those riffs in it.
And it's so good. So I think that tying it all
back in to make the point, Different Kind of
Truth was an amazing album that was a great cap
to their career. This is the final song on the
final Van Halen album. Is this Deep Dive Jay
we're looking at tonight? Because this is a really
deep pick. I love the fact that you went with
this because at the end of the day, this is kind
of Van Halen's exclamation point at the end of
their career. I'll say this album was a lot better
than Van Halen three for me. I love the fact
that they went back into the vault. Wolfgang
went back and discovered some of the old Van
Halen songs that tried to reinject that energy
into Van Halen, similar to the way Rick Rubin.
did with Metallica and Black Sabbath. He tried
to get them to tap into the early days to kind
of put out this album that he was working on
with them. I like that Wolf did that. And this
song was originally called Put Out the Lights,
but David Lee Roth came in and rewrote the lyrics
and it was re -recorded for this album as Beats
Workin'. And it's your typical David Lee Roth
swagger. And I'm very surprised, but we're staying
in this rock vein here. So I'll see your... End
of the era catalog. And I'll hit you with a middle
of the catalog cut. I'm going to go back to 1981
and this was put out as a single. And fans of
Vanilla Ice will know this one. Because I'm going
to go with Queen and David Bowie and Under Pressure.
Well, not about work in the literal sense, Monday
to Friday, nine to five, sitting at your desk,
stumble out of bed. You know what I'm talking
about. These lyrics, John Deacon has said, deal
with how pressure can destroy lives, but love
can be the answer. So it's not a literal thing.
Plus, coming out of Van Halen, Rush and Skid
Row, I need to kind of ease us out of the heavy
and not do a hard pivot. And I think this does
just that. Don't sell yourself short on that
point, though, because there are themes in Under
Pressure that everyone, it kind of points to
the deeper meaning of it is everybody's caught
up in this rat race. We're all trying to outdo
each other, that we're ignoring each other on
the streets and forgetting about the love for
our fellow man, which I think is a huge theme.
really does tie into sure the superficial surface
version of yeah i'm under all this pressure i've
got all these deadlines but you've got that underneath
it all you still got that you know this is the
daily grind that is taking us away from what
really matters and that's caring for our fellow
man hippie jay for a minute well covers brian
wants to chime in because in 2004 my chemical
romance in the used covered this song together
and I'm not going to lie. That emo punk treatment
on that version was absolutely awesome. I love
it. It could be one of my top songs from both
of those bands because that cover was just such
a uniquely perfect combination to be able to
bring the Queen and David Bowie into the modern
era at the time. Oh, I absolutely love MCR. The
Used is great. And I think that, yeah, that cover
was a great, great homage. All right. Well, we
are now up to track five, Jay. Where do we go
from here? Hmm. Well, we seem to be kind of backing
off of the drive a little bit. But you know what?
Let's take a little bit of a slower tack and
a little bit of a pivot. Go with one of my favorite
artists of all time. And we're going to go down
the road, if you will, to Van Morrison's All
Work and No Play. What a great blues riff, a
terrific message. And of course, you know, the
repeating refrain of All Work, No Play makes
Jack a dull chap. And that theme will be viewed,
what, 1980? The Shining? Yes. Where Jack Nicholson
goes to the retreat house and he's in the...
Going crazy and he's typing over and over on
the keyboard. All work, no play makes Jack a
dull boy. So listen to some Van Morrison and
don't become Jack Nicholson. Good advice from
Jay Sweet. Right. Man, you are doing deep dive
Jay tonight. I'm kind of digging this. That whole
album down the road has a very 50s, 60s. kind
of soul R &B vibe to it. And he's done that throughout
the years where he's gone back and kind of done
these throwback, even as his most recent album,
at least as of us recording, that was Accentuate
the Positive, which was basically a bunch of
rock and roll, R &B and country cover songs that
he did. But I say that with an asterisk because
he put out three albums in 2023, one album in
2022, one album in 2021. Like he has been busy
lately. But that said, this is a great pick.
I always laughed at the lyric. I'm just a wild
and crazy guy because when he sings it, I know
he's singing it for the lyrics, but I just can't
not picture Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd with
their fingers up in the air. Two wild and crazy
guys. Yeah, I know, but that's where my mind
goes. It's great. I love it. Where are you going
from here? Man, coming out of that, I think I'm
going to go with one that is an obvious pick,
but maybe not for everybody. I grew up listening
to the Z Morning Zoo, New York City radio with
Scott Shannon. And for those in the New Jersey,
New York area, you probably remember Mr. Leonard's
Lime Green Pinto. And every Friday morning, they
would do the 9 a .m. whistle, meaning the weekend's
almost here. And that 9 a .m. whistle always
kicked off with 1983's monster hit from Todd
Rundgren, Bang on the Drum All Day from 1983's
the ever popular. tortured artist effect for
me this was every friday morning of my childhood
because fun story i used to have 120 minute cassette
because i loved the z morning zoo growing up
i used to get the records every year with all
the comedy bits broken out on vinyl i used to
love that so what i would do is i'd have the
radio on with play and record and pause all set
up in case a parody or a comedy bit was coming
on, I could record it. And then what I would
do is I would grab this 120 minute tape because
each side was an hour. When I left for school,
I would pop it in and hit record. And always
at the end of the side, I would always get the
9 a .m. Friday morning play of Todd Rundgren's
Bang on the Drum All Day. So that is a very specific
memory for me, but the song is very much about
it. But there was simply no way I was getting
through this episode without talking about this
one. No, 100%. I just actually went back through
recently, went back through Todd Rundgren's catalog.
And Bang on the Drum was my first exposure to
Todd Rundgren. And even though I think my mom
was a big Carole King fan and I saw The Light
and Hello It's Me, which were very Carole King
inspired kind of songs. When I heard bang the
drum and what's the lyric about? I went to the
shed and I banged the drum so hard. Like it was
the boss's head. I thought to myself, what a
terrible existence. Like who wants to live that
kind of life where you want to beat on your boss's
head? Don't you want a good book? And then I,
you know, became old enough to work and realized,
Oh no, they're all like that. And now I am like
that. So I know a bunch of my guys. and gals
downstairs want to bang on my head a couple of
times. What a fantastic song, and it's hoppy,
and it's not like anything else you get from
Run Grit. But that being said, that's patently
Run Grit, because every album is different. He
has beats in his career. Including 2005 when
he joined up with Elliot Easton and Greg Hawks
and they formed the new cars. Oh, that's right.
And he was singing all the leads. That was a
great little run. I'm so sad I never got to see
it. And I'm kind of hoping because Todd and Greg
and Elliot are still alive that maybe they'll
do kind of a tribute to Rick and Benjamin and
do another new cars run. Oh, yeah. I understand
that Todd's voice is different than Ben and Rick,
but. It's not that far off. And it was convincing.
And they did a song not tonight together that
I rank as could be as good as anything in the
cars catalog. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Well,
here's hoping maybe they'll, maybe they'll pull
together a couple of summers or something, or
they'll, they'll show up in these one -offs,
you know, kind of things. That'd be a PNC bank
art center in a heartbeat. I'd go see that with
take my money. Was it Todd Rundgren that was
performing with them at the Hall of Fame induction
or no? Well, Rick was still alive. It was Rick.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Well,
let's see. We're talking about 1983 here. Let's
stay in the 80s. And some of you will recognize
this song from the most recent Allstate insurance
commercials featuring a beautiful 1950 or 49
car with a hood. ornaments singing, I've got
the brains, you've got the brawn, let's make
lots of money. And that's Pet Shop Boys' Opportunities.
If you hadn't grown up in the 80s, that was one
of the most popular songs by the Pet Shop Boys.
And I think that song speaks perfectly for corporate
America. I couldn't agree more. And I'm going
to make a confession right now. The Allstate
commercial, I actually had to look up the song
the first time I heard it. For some reason, the
Pet Shop Boys were a blind spot for me in the
80s. I don't know why, but I'm confessing some
deep, dark secrets here tonight on the show.
I had to look that one up when I first saw that
commercial. I'm like, why do I know this? How
do I know this? And I shazammed it and went,
ah, it's the Pet Shop Boys, blind spot. Yeah,
I don't know why, but it's a great song. Yeah,
Pet Shop Boys kicked some serious hiney in the
80s with West End Girls. And what have I done
to deserve this? One of my favorites with Dusty
Springfield, another great song. And this one
was kind of, it was a minor hit for them, but
it was such a great riff. So you're going what?
85, 86 for that song. I believe that's correct.
Yes. Okay. Well, I was in 83 for Todd Rundgren.
So I'm going to go back to 83. I'm going to kind
of pull this tug of war we're doing here. And
I'm going to go with a song that again is probably
on the nose, but. when you think about female
singers, this is one that I think deservedly
could be one of the biggest, I will say one of
the, if not the biggest voice of the disco era
and then into the eighties as well. And I'm going
to go with Donna summer. Now it's not my favorite
song by her. That would go to hot stuff. Or Bad
Girls. I just love that whole album, actually.
Oh, you're not picking Bad Girls? No. That's
a song about working. Technically, right? It
would fit the theme. But no, I'm not. I am going
to go with 1983's She Works Hard for the Money.
Shout out to Patreon mixtape or Sherry Thomas,
who chimed in with this one as well. Like I said,
Donna Summer's voice. I mean, is she the queen
of disco? Maybe. I think you can make a good
argument for that. I mean, between Last Dance
and Hot Stuff and Bad Girls and and then this
was a little bit more pop for her. But when you
think about those 80s songs about the work week,
this was always on the radio on a Friday. Absolutely.
And it just it's that's kind of what got ingrained
into my head when I was always listening to radio.
Those songs that they always played around either
9 a .m. or 5 p .m. on a Friday. And that's kind
of where my mind was going with this playlist,
kind of keeping it in that. Hooray, it's the
weekend vibe. That song will always remind me
of my mom because of the it was that song came
out right around the time where my parents split
up and my mom had four kids. Most of us, I think,
were under 10 at that point because I'm the oldest.
And so just knowing what my mom went through.
To make ends meet and to make sure that we stayed
alive was that song just, it really reminds me
of my mom. And she did work hard for the money.
And, you know, I love you, mom. You're the best.
And so, you know, there was a, let me take a
hard right here. There was a documentary movie
that came out on Casablanca Records that highlighted
her career. Sure, some liberties were taken up,
you know, of course, because on all these documentaries,
liberties are taken. But the story of where she
was in Germany performing these dive bars to
stay alive with her daughter, I believe at the
time, and then that she was discovered and holy
cats. And then she come out of that record, if
I'm not mistaken. And what was it? Love to love
you, right? Where she's. literally moaning sexually
through the whole song. And she became like a
really, like she went back to her devout Christian
roots and did a couple of gospel records after
all the pop stuff was done. It was like, I don't
want to talk about bad girls. I want to talk
because, you know, an important part of her career.
But she said, I just, I felt over sexualized
and I felt like I was part of the machine. So
again, that double meaning for, for the song
for you, she really got caught up in that grind
as well. Yeah. Well, all right. We got the ladies
making an appearance here and I'm, I'm enjoying
that. There was, here's another woman who was
in the same era, 1981, I believe this song came
out and she did almost the exact opposite of
what Donna Summer did when we're talking about.
Before she was kind of discovered, but she was
kind of brought in by Prince. And we're talking
about Sheena Easton here. And she wrote a song
called Morning Train in parentheses nine to five
to not be confused with the Dolly Parton nine
to five that had come out the year prior to the
movie of the same name. So this song and then
right after the song, I think she connected up
with Prince and then did a whole bunch of rather.
sexually aggressive songs i was gonna say morning
train nine to five is probably more bubble gum
than anything she did ever past that yeah and
it's a great song and the fact that they had
to parenthesize nine to five just to kind of
distinguish itself from dolly's version which
still hasn't come up tonight and i'm kind of
surprised about that i could follow you up with
that and do a nine to five back to back but ending
aside there was a story that i was told on episode
23 of this show and that episode was the ultimate
huey lewis in the news playlist with bill gibson
and he tells such a great story about this song
that i don't want to spoil it now even though
i spoiled the fact that this song is going to
make that episode's playlist i digress From 1982's
Picture This, I'm going with Working for a Livin'.
I do want to give a shout out, though, to Patreon
mixtaper Christopher Stile, who chimed in a couple
days off. I love that one as well. However, coming
out of this kind of early 80s thing we've got
going, from Todd Rundgren, maybe a bop up to
86, back to 83 to 81, I'm kind of going to stay
in that area. At the end of the day, Working
for a Living was the song the band closed all
of their shows with because that was kind of
the theme of the band. But I'm not going to go
any deeper than that. However, there is a great
cover of this song by Garth Brooks, and it features
Huey Lewis on the track as well. It's on one
of the 5 ,347 Garth Brooks compilation albums.
I think it's the Ultimate, Super Deluxe, Limited,
Rare, Out of Print. analog to digital Dolby Atmos
greatest super duper tippy top hits album. I
mean, I love Garth Brooks. Don't get me wrong.
He has more compilations out between the books.
And when he re -releases the album box sets and
he adds extra tracks here, and then he does other
box sets. He has more compilations of his albums
than actual albums at this point, but no hating
on Garth. Closing out Side A, Huey Lewis and
the News, Working for a Livin'. Love it. Yeah,
that was one of the first Huey Lewis songs. I
think for me it was Do You Believe in Love, which
was a cover, which I also learned from episode
23. And then Working for a Livin' and Couple
Days Off, which is, again, that's another great
song too. You talk about a working man's band.
That's Huey Lewis and the News. And yes, it's
on the nose, but they're so great. I love this
group so much and I'm so glad that other mixtapers
chimed in with it because I was like, all right,
awesome. Like, you know, you're justified. Yeah,
yeah, definitely. So there we go, folks. Side
A of our ultimate work week anthems playlist,
which kicked off with Skid Row's Slave to the
Grind. Rush's Working Man, Van Halen's Beats
Workin', Queen with David Bowie's Under Pressure,
Van Morrison's All Work and No Play, Todd Rundgren's
Bang on the Drum All Day, Pet Shop Boy's Opportunities
Let's Make Lots of Money, Donna Summer's She
Works Hard for the Money, Sheena Easton's Morning
Train 9 to 5, and Huey Lewis and the News Working
for a Livin'. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com
to hear all the songs we've discussed in this
mix through the playlist embedded on the episode
page. And now, Jay, I get to kick off side B
of our ultimate workweek anthems playlist. And
I am going to just go for it and go with the
song that I am sure everybody's been wondering.
why we haven't played it yet. It is the song
that kicked off the 5 p .m. hour on Z100 every
Friday, and I'm sure it still does. I live just
outside of the New York radio territory that
I can't actually get it, but I am sure Friday
night at 5 o 'clock, you are hearing the opening
to Loverboys Working for the Weekend from 1981's
Get Lucky, one of Canada's finest from the 80s,
and shockingly, Shockingly, this surprised me.
It only hit number 29 on the Billboard US Hot
100. I just assumed it was a top 10 hit given
the popularity and its staying power and its
longevity. But yeah, it's not even a top 20 hit
for them. But I got to see them this summer for
the first time when they opened for Sammy Hagar
on the Best of All Worlds Tour at PNC Bank Arts
Center. And let me tell you. Mike Reno and the
boys still bring it live. Now, while it's over,
it's always going to be my favorite lover boy
tune, but working for the weekend always puts
a smile on my face. That's a song I cannot not
think of Zoolander whenever I hear it. That scene
in the mine is just the most hysterical thing.
But you mentioned the longevity of this song
and the roots that it has ensnared in the entire
lexicon of pop culture. And the longevity that
it's given it, they're deep. Those are some deep,
deep roots. And it is absolutely just a great
work song. So I grew up, of course, in Syracuse,
New York, which is just a little outside of New
York City, four and a half hours. It's not just
on the outer edges. On the outskirts. But our
Y94 FM was the adult contemporary station. At
5 o 'clock, they did the 5 o 'clock Friday thing.
And there's still a good friend of mine, Rich
Lauber, who became the guy. He was my boss for
a minute. He was the operations guy for the cluster
before I left and before I met you. And he was
the afternoon drive jock. who got to blow the
five o 'clock whistle. And this song was in the
working for the weekend was in the clips, right?
The cold open, if you will, that he would play
before the five o 'clock Friday. Like it was
so good. You know, when I was growing up and
having that cutting my teeth and radio and, and
hearing that song for sure. All right. Well,
what are you going to follow up working for the
weekend with? Because I have no better place
at this moment. to do this song and it absolutely
must be put in here because this is roller skating
101 at its finest when i was growing up this
is another one of those songs that epitomizes
working stiffs right and what are we talking
like 1984 or 1985 that this song came out or
might have been later but i'm fairly sure it
was right in that area with johnny kemp's just
got paid and if you if you think about it i just
got paid it's friday night there's money in my
pocket and i'm feeling right so yeah that's what
it in that sums it all up that's what makes the
work week worth it dude that came out you want
to laugh 1987 what was i was gonna say 87 i i
had a feeling because Everything came out in
1987. Come on. Yeah, exactly. But those were
that was the years that I was at the local skating
rink with my friends after school every day.
We're going to go to the skating place and listen
to Samantha Fox and Johnny Temp while we're backwards
skating. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk about
you mentioned sexualized singer before Samantha
Fox. That was like. Well, she was a page six
girl in England. So. There you have it. Page
six, right? That's the big... It's not page three.
There's the hell you don't. I have no idea what
you're talking about. Sure. Just like you're
going to probably admit that you don't know that
there's an NSYNC cover of Just Got Paid on No
Strings Attached. Oh, no, I absolutely know that.
And I'm going to say I'm sure there's a lot of
people listening that are in their 20s and 30s
that are screaming, why didn't we go with the
NSYNC version instead? So you probably have some
explaining to do, Mr. Sweet. Well, so there is.
There's a bunch of songs that were kind of more
modernized. I think we kind of got into this
a little bit. Britney Spears has a song called
Work B. I don't want to cuss. Rihanna has a song
called Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, where she
repeats the song, I think, 72 times. For 62 times
in the science, it's some ridiculous amount.
It's like Bart Simpson on the chalkboard. That's
right. The intro to the deep cut there. But I
wanted to stay with the originals that really
kind of invoked those memories for, again, the
80s kind of saw, it was the decade of decadence.
It was the decade of excess. And the 80s encapsulated
that ideal of working. for the next big thing
and really, really grinding it out to get what
you want out of life. And we still had hope in
the 80s that we could actually do that. Now I'm
fully aware that I'm not going to retire. They're
going to pull my dead carcass out of my office.
So what am I going to do? Oh, man. Well, we just
had two songs that celebrate the joyous coming
of 5 p .m. on a Friday. I'm going to do a hard
pivot here. Maybe not so much musically, but
in mindset. I'm only going to go back two years
to 1986's Different Light. And I'm going to go
with one of my favorite 80s songs, maybe, ever.
And I'm going to go with the Bangles' Manic Monday.
Prince's musical masterpiece with Susanna Hoff's
hypnotic voice. I've always, always loved this
song. And it was something that, on morning radio,
7 .38 a .m. every Monday. This got played like
clockwork, and I didn't care as much as I hated
Mondays, just like Garfield. I love this song.
Reliant K does a great cover of it on the Punk
Goes 80s compilation, as well as Billy Joe Armstrong
from Green Day in 2020 on his No Fun Mondays
album. He did a cover of the song with Susannah
Hoffs guesting on the track. Could be one of
my favorite songs ever. Like, I just love this
song. There's something, it's a perfect pop song.
Absolutely. And I had forgotten the Reliant K
version. Punk Goes 80 is a great album. I had
forgotten all about that until you mentioned
it. And again, you could have gone in any different
direction with the Monday Blues. There's I Don't
Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats. I mean, I
could go there if I wanted to follow it up, but
I don't. Fleetwood Mac's Monday Morning. Monday
Morning. Yep. Monday, Monday. by uh mama's in
the why did i just mama's a papa's i don't know
why i just blanked on that actually i do it's
because i'm old and if i can remember songs like
monday monday then i can totally and then there's
oh i just had i just had a moment there blue
monday new order new order how does it feel how
does it feel and then they uh was it muse that
that redid that nope that was orgy no orgy that's
it from the not another teen movie soundtrack
and candy ass the album yep So all that tangent
aside, let's go to, all right. On that case of
the Mondays tangent aside. That's right. Let's
stay in the, in the, oh, you know, work sucks.
I know kind of vein, which we've skirted around
it long enough, Brian. I think we need to bring
Dolly into the mix. So let's go with Dolly Parton's
nine to five. Well, I mentioned it earlier when
we were talking about Chena Easton, this song
came out in 1980 and it was the theme of the.
movie of the same name with Lily Tomlin Jane
Fonda and Dolly Parton as well as Dabney Coleman
and that movie was hysterical would not probably
hold up well I can't even say that because recently
they did a relatively recently they did a Broadway
musical of that which starred Allison Janney
from you know the comedic actress wonderful actress
a national treasure and a sheer delight that
uh she's she's very very good but yeah this i
mean this song is the ultimate summation of working
for the man yeah and now we went from deep dive
jay to pathological liar jay because uh jay at
the beginning of the episode said you weren't
gonna do any country songs that's true this was
this was a crossover though so i'm gonna give
you a technicality i'm gonna give you an asterisk
on this one Because it was a pop hit as well
as it was a country hit. However, I get to drop
a cover song here. And people are either going
to drive off the road angry that I'm bringing
this up, but I don't care. The Chipmunks covered
this song on the Chipmunks Go Hollywood LP that
I used to rock out to when I was three and four
and five years old. I don't think for the early
80s or the mid 80s, there wasn't a song that
the Chipmunks didn't cover. No, there wasn't.
And I loved every one of them. That translated
to the movie, the CGI movie with Jason Lee, where
they covered a lot of more modern songs, too.
And I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed the movies,
too. Every one of them. Every one of them. Gorsher.
Well, you finally gave me an in, because when
you said, I'm not going to go country at all,
I was like, well, damn, how am I going to sneak
this in here? But now you've opened the door.
So now I'm going to run right through it with
a shout out to Patreon mixtaper Chad LaMassa,
who also chimed in with this one. Written by
country legend David Allen Coe, but made famous
by Johnny Paycheck from 1977. His massive single,
Take This Job and Shove It. The views expressed
in Johnny Paycheck's Take This Job and Shove
It are those of Johnny Paycheck and David Allen
Co. and do not reflect the views or positions
of Brian Colburn, My Weekly Mixtape, and Jay
Sweet. I mean, maybe you, Jay, but I figured
I'd give you an out if you wanted it. Yeah, we
can't not talk about Take This Job and Shove
It. It's anytime someone's frustrated, this song
pops into your head. And I'm not saying that.
I ever think it now, but it has in the past popped
in my head. I got to tell you, I didn't know
until right now today. I learned that David Allen
co wrote this song. Oh, you didn't know that.
Nope. And yet it makes so much sense. I mean,
the lyrics, the song about, uh, got this boss
who has a brand new flat top haircut and Lord,
he thinks he's cool. But this was, uh, this was,
uh, used as a theme song. To the 1981 film of
the same name, which I remember because when
everybody on my block got cable and we all got
HBO, my buddy Derek had HBO and we would go up
to his place when his parents weren't really
paying attention to us. And we go in the basement
and watch HBO movies like Super Fuzz and take
this job and shove it with Porky's and Revenge
of the Nerds and stuff like that. I was going
to say, yeah. not exactly appropriate for eight
and nine year olds, but here we were anyway.
Animal house, Caddyshack. Yep. Yep. Sure. Before
the PG 13 rating even came out. So there's been
so many times that I've gone to show our kids
movies and we'll be watching them. And my wife
will turn to me and she'll be like, the hell
is this rated? And I said, PG. And she just stops
the movie. She goes, what year? I'm like, it
came out when I was a kid, like 86. She's like,
Brian, PG in the 80s is not PG now. There's a
big. No, not at all. Goonies is PG. Yeah. And
the scene with the guy in the freezer with the
bullet in the head. I'm like, I saw this in the
theaters. This is what a PG movie is, right?
You know, like big old dumb dad there. But you've
got an open road here. We can go out of Johnny
Paycheck. And we can talk about taking this job
and shoving it. And what happens after you tell
somebody to take this job and shove it is more
than likely you're going to get fired and you're
going to need to get a job, which leads us down
to the American graffiti soundtrack, which by
the silhouettes. And that's one of the most,
probably one of the most famous songs off of
that record. Dude, that was an. every 1980s movie
i remember it being in trading places good morning
vietnam and stand by me and then on top of that
obviously american graffiti and i'm sure there's
other ones anytime they went back to the 50s
they went to this song that's a weird thing about
this song i've always wondered this and i want
to know if i'm the only one the bass voice in
this song The guy that's going, is he louder
in the mix than everybody else? Like he really
protrudes out of that song, doesn't he? It seems
like it. And here, so here's a theory. And he
was closer to the microphone. Yeah, exactly.
My theory is this. And someday you and I have
talked about the, you know, doing the greatest
oldies mixtape with a good friend of mine from
Syracuse, who is a veritable. fountain of knowledge
for all things doo -wop. Jimmy Mitchell, I'm
going to shout him out on the show today, but
he would probably be able to shed more light
on this. But my theory, and as somebody who has
been in a band and who has worked in a recording
studio and has worked with audio for a very long
time, is that when they made the transition from
mono to stereo, they fiddled with stuff. So the
more modern of the recordings that we hear are
the stereo tracks instead of the original mono
because stereo didn't exist in the 1950s. A lot
of this stuff was done in mono. So that's just
a working theory. I could be completely wrong.
Well, I want to ask Jay, how the hell did this
not make our golden oldies and doo -wop mixtape
back on episode 51? This seems like it would
have been a shoo -in. We should put a pin in
this one for volume two, for sure. Absolutely.
But we talked about it at the end of the show.
There are so many great oldies songs that you
can't possibly get them in. If you take the entirety
of the American Graffiti soundtrack and more
American Graffiti, which were songs in and inspired
by the movie, those are the perfect oldies mixtapes.
They're just perfect. So that's probably why.
Yeah, we did promise people a volume two on that
one. So we have to get to that sooner or later.
So what I'll do until that point is follow your
oldie up with another oldie, kind of keep in
this vein. And you went with a song that was
in a lot of movies. And I'll go with an oldie
that was in one movie at that time. And I'm going
to go back to 1964. And let's just bring the
legends into this. The Beatles, A Hard Day's
Night. I've been working like a dog. It's been
a hard day's night. I should be sleeping like
a log. But when I get home to you, I find the
things that you do will make me feel all right.
This is kind of like Drake -level lyrics in 1964,
if you think about it, man. Were the Stones and
the Beatles in the middle of a beef writing diss
tracks to each other? Man, I'll say this. Billy
Joel has an extremely fun live version on the
Complete Hits Collection, which was the 73 to
97 box set. If you like covers, Billy Joel's
is awesome. Very cool. The Beatles had a couple
of great songs that, again, pointed out the plight
of the working man. We had Hard Day's Night,
and then we had Eight Days a Week, which was
another one of those songs that would have fit
perfectly into this slot. And maybe Help. Oh,
yeah. And then you could go back to the Rolling
Stones with Mother's Little Helper. I don't know.
Or if you said take this job and shove it, you
could follow it up with it's all over now. That's
right. Well, listen, I'm going to come out of
a hard day's night. Let's jam ourselves right
back into the 70s. And we've kind of needed to
get here another one of these great anthems for
the Blue Collar Man by Styx. I was about to say,
dude. I was going to ask you to kind of like
turn in your sticks fan club card if we weren't
going here soon. Well, we had the pleasure of
talking with Lawrence Gowan of sticks back in
our tune styles days. And then he joined me on
episode 25 for my weekly mixtape. So if there's
any sticks fans in the house listening tonight,
go back and check that episode out. I knew this
one was coming up and I knew you were picking
this one. So I had it in my bank and next to
it. I literally have parentheses. Jay's definitely
picking this one. Don't bother taking many notes.
Listen, if you're living in Chicago, you might
as well have a really good knowledge of Chicago
bands. And yeah, I think I've got a pretty good
repertoire here. In fact, it's funny. If I'm
not mistaken, Billy Corgan lives not too far
away from my apartment, which is awesome. I'm
going to swing up and say hi. I'm sure I won't
get shot at all. No, but if you don't, and after
you're done with the restraining order and getting
arrested and stuff, if you can ask him to come
on for the ultimate Smashing Pumpkins episode,
that'd be cool. So come on, throw a good word
in there. Actually, no. Take one for the team.
But if you're getting a restraining order, I
don't want you asking him because that's going
to put it on me too. Reflect badly on my weekly
mixtape, which we don't want. Yeah, so we don't
want that. So try to do it in a happenstance,
like run into him at the music store or something.
Okay. Okay, good. That's doable. All right. So
ready? Three, two, one break. Okay, good. Now
you're going to go do that. And I am going to
follow you up by staying in the 70s and going
with one of my favorite songs growing up and
one of my favorite working songs ever. And it's
also a song that could be used kind of about
work or about life in general. Yes, the lyrics
are much more on the nose about work, but. Sometimes
we're just taking care of business. Bachman Turner
Overdrive from their 1973 album Bachman Turner
Overdrive 2. One of my favorite songs growing
up. My parents had this album and as much as
I love songs like Blown and Welcome Home, Bachman
Turner Overdrive are incredible. But Taking Care
of Business was the song for me as a kid. Every
time they put it on and that riff started, I
was stomping around the living room to this one.
And I just love the track. And then in 1988,
a band called Big Mouth. I want to know if anybody
has ever heard of this group before. They played
their videos, I want to say, a little bit on
MTV and a little bit on Nickelodeon. I really
want to say Nickelodeon. Nick Rocks? It might
have been Nick Rocks. And it was kind of this
rap -rock combination that was kind of going
after the Beastie Boys' License to Ill Success.
And they do a cover of Taking Care of Business.
But it's pretty much the original song, except
they don't sing it. He just kind of talks the
lyrics, but he's not he's rapping it. But it
doesn't kind of flow like a rap song. Whereas
Randy Bachman would sing, you get up every morning
with the long clock. This guy's going, you get
up every morning with the long clock warning.
Take the eight. And he talks it. He's speak singing
it. Yeah. So I'm going to embed this over on
the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com if you
haven't heard this cover, because I think everybody
needs to hear it just once. But I mean, the original
is a damn classic. And sadly, it's my last pick
of the night. So I feel like it's a great way
to wrap a little bow around the songs I've chosen,
because taking care of business is what we've
been doing for the last hour here. That's right.
That's right. Well, all right. So that means
I get to close out the record? Yeah, you have
the good fortune of putting the cherry on top
of our Workweek Anthems playlist. Oh, what a
cherry it will be. Brian, I am very disappointed
that it's taken us this long to come to the greatest
song about working that was ever composed. I
mean, of all time. Of all time. But I think we've
saved the best for last year. And I'm going to
rip out from 1986's Polka Party. Yes! Dog Eat
Dog by Weird Al Yankovic. Yes! That is me best
song. I can bend paperclips into the shape of
small animals. Oh my God. Yes, yes, yes. And
I got my coffee mug with my name right on it
in big bold letters. So everyone knows it's mine.
And don't even touch it because it doesn't belong
to you. I'm watching you. So don't get funny.
Oh, my God. I love it. I love it. I'm kind of
kicking myself right now. I didn't even think
about this one. So thank you. And I also certainly
don't want to make the guy feel bad, but I got
to give a shout out to Patreon mixtaper, Philip
Bergman. He chimed in with some great songs,
but he joined me for the ultimate Weird Al playlist
on episode 56. And he didn't chime in with this
one either. So bravo. Oh, dude, slow golf clap,
man. I love it. Thank you. And I'm sure Philip
is thanking you as well right now, but we haven't
mentioned board shorts. So board shorts. There
you go. There we go. It is. I mean, this is a
Weird Al penned original in the style of, right?
And it's in the style of the Talking Heads. It's
kind of a direct riff off of Once in a Lifetime
where they're doing the, where's my liquid paper?
It's so great. Wait a minute. Is the Talking
Heads now on the show? Does David Byrne show
up? Oh, I love some David Byrne. I love me some
David Byrne. Yeah, but you've got, you know,
you can. maybe find yourself behind the wheel
of a large automobile. And this was very much
what Weird Al was going for when he did the style
parody of Doggy Dog. Dude, let's be honest. Some
of Weird Al's style parodies are better than
what he's parodying. Yes. Like, let's just be
honest. And we talked about this on that Weird
Al Yankovic episode. Dare to be Stupid is a Devo
song that Devo just didn't write. Oh yeah, Mark
Mothersbaugh even said, I hate him for having
written a better Devo song than I could. And
Doggy Dog is a talking head song that David Byrne
didn't write. I love it. What a great way to
close it out. I aim to please, sir. Well, there
you have it, folks. Side B of our ultimate workweek
anthems playlist, which kicked off with Loverboys
working for the weekend, Johnny Kemp's Just Got
Paid, The Bangles' Manic Monday, Dolly Parton's
9 to 5, Johnny Paycheck's Take This Job and Shove
It, The Silhouettes' Get a Job, The Beatles'
A Hard Day's Night, Styx's Blue Collar Man, Bachman
Turner Overdrive's Taking Care of Business, and
Weird Al Yankovic's Dog Eat. dog. Head over to
myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs we've
discussed in this mix through the playlist embedded
on the episode page. Jay, as always, my friend,
it is a pleasure having you on and look forward
to your next stint over here on My Weekly Mixtape.
Always a blast, man. Thanks for having me, man.
It wasn't work at all. And now I'm going to go
to bed because I have to go to work in the morning.
Well, you go do that. And I am going to remind
the My Weekly Mixtape listeners that you can
find My Weekly Mixtape on almost all the social
media haunts at My Weekly Mixtape. You can also
head to MyWeeklyMixtape .com to check out the
full catalog of My Weekly Mixtape episodes. And
finally, if you like what you're hearing on the
show, you can help me out by either telling a
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wherever you're tuning in, or becoming a Patreon
mixtaper at Patreon .com forward slash. my weekly
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of the show, become a future guest, and so much
more. That's all for this work week. Thanks again
for listening, and until next time, enjoy the
tunes.