Company Man

(album: Ashes & Dust - 2015)

I started working here when I was twenty-one
Summer of '56
My life had just begun
Back then this place was some place to be
Thought I could grow with the company

Never took a dime
Never raised a fuss
Right is right
Even for those of us
Who make a dollar while the man makes ten
They say hard work pays off in the end

Everything I got
I got with my own hands
Never wanted to be no company man

So I kept my eyes open and my mouth shut
Saw my workload increase and my pay cut
But I bought a house
Started a family
Still had some faith in the company

Hard time's hit '67 late
Devil must've opened up the flood gates
My wife, she left me for some other guy
And in my heart I guess I always knew why

She was never gonna understand
Never wanted to be no company man

'79 brought a dose of reality
We'd all heard the rumours about the company
One day they shut us down
Throughout the south
And keeping my job meant moving out

So I got hired on at the local factory
Couldn't see uprooting my whole family
Never thought I'd be starting over at this stage
Taking shit from some punk
Half my age

No retirement
No hospital plan
Never wanted to be no company man

Long since retired, now, from the factory
Hardly ever think about the company
Kinda lonesome, now the kids are grown
Moved away
Families of their own

Got me a little house and a piece of land
Never wanted to be no company man
Sometimes in this world you gotta make a stand
Never wanted to be no company man