Pop Song 641 of 1000 'Blue Collar Man' Styx 1978

Pop Song 641 of 1000 'Blue Collar Man' Styx 1978

Official MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDM6v1XhWEg
July 14, 2024

Tommy Shaw recalled that a friend of his was laid off from the railroad. "He was having to go stand in line at the unemployment office. It just drove him nuts, because he’s like, ‘I wanna work! I don’t wanna be standing around here, asking for a handout…’ It really bugged him, and that was the inspiration for that song.”[2] As read in a Circus magazine (or the like) of the time, the music was composed by Shaw after hearing the sound of his motor boat engine when it failed to start.[3] He said it sounded like a good riff to a song.

Give me a job, give me security
Give me a chance to survive
I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God, I'm hardly alive
My mother and father, my wife and my friends
You see them laugh in my face
But I've got the power, and I've got the will
I'm not a charity case
I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my eye in the keyhole
If it takes all that to be just what I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Make me an offer that I can't refuse
Make me respectable, man
This is my last time in the unemployment line
So like it or not, I'll take those
Long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my back to the wall
If it takes all night to be just what I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Keeping my mind on a better life
When happiness is only a heartbeat away
Paradise, can it be all I heard it was?
I close my eyes and maybe I'm already there
I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my back to the wall
All that to be just what I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do
(You don't understand)
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do
I'll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes all that to be just who I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar
Gotta be a blue collar-
Gonna be a blue collar man
Alright!
Believe it