80s Music Meme

[deguspice]

Imagine it's in the middle of the night in your dorm room, you're working on a computer program half-listening to what sounds like a traditional railroad work song on the radio when you hear the following for the first time.


WHITE COLLAR HOLLER
(Nigel Russell)

Well, I rise up every morning at a quarter to eight
Some woman who's my wife tells me not to be late
I kiss the kids goodbye, I can't remember their names
And week after week, it's always the same

And it's Ho, boys, can't you code it, and program it right
Nothing ever happens in the life of mine
I'm hauling up the data on the Xerox line

Then it's code in the data, give the keyboard a punch
Then cross-correlate and break for some lunch
Correlate, tabulate, process and screen
Program, printout, regress to the mean

Then it's home again, eat again, watch some TV
Make love to my woman at ten-fifty-three
I dream the same dream when I'm sleeping at night
I'm soaring over hills like an eagle in flight

Someday I'm gonna give up all the buttons and things
I'll punch that time clock till it can't ring
Burn up my necktie and set myself free
Cause no one's gonna fold, bend or mutilate me.

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Copyright Nigel Russell and dedicated to the city of Bramalea, Ontario, Canada.

Recorded by Stan Rogers on Between the Breaks - Live, Fogarty's Cove Music, FCM-002

Comments

[n2mlq.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. One of my favorites, and one that's gotten me through some very long nights of network hackery. Tragic about Stan Rogers though, not the way a folks singer should go.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

According a rumor from a friend who was into the folk scene back then, Stan Rogers was seen at the door of the plane a couple of times helping other people to escape the fire, but eventually he succumbed to the fire.

I don't know if it's true, but I think the story fits.