Songs for Working

I have recently begun to work for a company called Lifetime Wellness. I now provide music therapy to two different nursing homes each week and I may be adding a third in the fall if all goes well. I used to work in the Nursing Home field when Maggie was a baby, but it's been a very long time. I had forgotten how much I liked working with these people!

For me the hardest part is coming up with the initial idea. Once I get the idea, I'm good to go when doing a group. Fortunately, I have a great boss named Janice Harris, who has great ideas. She emails the therapists and tells us what she will be doing. I then find that I am able to come up ideas from there. I have decided to organize my ideas into notebooks. For now, I just have one notebook, but I look to grow into six separate notebooks for the six wellness areas.

This week is vocational wellness and Janice sent a survey to give along with some ideas to get the ball rolling. We were to discuss CNA week, which was last week, and to also discuss how the CNA's cared them and how they might show care for others. We were then to pick songs that would show how we cared for others, how others might care for us, and songs we might sing to feel good about ourselves.

My morning group went really well. They had song books and did a great job of picking songs that fit into the caring for others or themselves theme we were discussing. The afternoon group, who is supposed to be a group of higher functioning residents in general, just sat there and looked at me. Fortunately, I can talk, and I can sing, so we muddled through, but it felt like pulling teeth to get responses.

During the group, I came up with ideas for tomorrow's groups. I decided to pick out songs about work and center my groups around those songs. With the help of other fellow therapists, I have a list of about 30 songs, plus those songs listed in Down Memory Lane. Some of the songs I know, and I printed music, so I could sing them. Some of them, aren't as singable, so I just downloaded the recordings onto my ipod. I thought I could do some trivia with the songs, or play 20 questions, or even resort to Hangman for the titles. There is a ton more to do with this set of songs than I can do in one session, so I will just save it for later, and get new music to add to the old music.

Then, while I was researching the songs to sing for tomorrow, I found that information about old fashioned "work" songs and military chants...not yet sure what I'm going to do with that in the future, but I know that there is a group in there somewhere. Perhaps writing a song or chant of their own...not sure yet, I'm going to let that one simmer.

Here is the List I have come up with so far. More will be added as I feel the juices flowing. There were several really good lists on the internet that I can't include here and now, but will make some for some interesting singing/listening. My husband wanted me to add I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK, just to be funny...I told him it would never work. They don't know who Monty Python is!

The Thirty Greatest Songs About Work

1. “Working Class Hero,” John Lennon
2. “Working for the Weekend,” Loverboy
3. “A Hard Day’s Night,” The Beatles
4. “Welcome to the Working Week,” Elvis Costello
5. “9 to 5,” Dolly Parton
6. “Workingman’s Blues #2,” Bob Dylan
7. “Working in the Highway,” Bruce Springsteen
8. “Oney,” Johnny Cash
9. “Bright Future In Sales,” Fountains of Wayne
10. “She Works Hard for the Money,” Donna Summer
11. “Luxury,” The Rolling Stones
12. “Takin’ Care of Business,” BTO
13. “Workin for a Livin,” Huey Lewis and the News
14. “Sixteen Tons,” Merle Travis
15. “Work, Work, Work (Pub Club Sleep),” The Rakes
16. “I’ve Been Working,” Van Morrison
17. “Maggie’s Farm,” Bob Dylan
18. “Just Got Paid,” ZZ Top
19. “Finest Worksong,” R.E.M.
20. “Career Opportunities,” The Clash
21. “Working Man,” Rush
22. “Blue Collar Man,” Styx
23. “Jacqueline,” Franz Ferdinand
24. “Work Is A Four-Letter Word,” by Cilla Black, performed by the Smiths
25. “To the Workers of the Rock Ridge Valley, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament,” Sufjan Stevens
26. Day-O (Banana Boat)
27.These are the People in your Neighborhood (included if you are really struggling for something to do with seniors or all of a sudden you have a kid pop in. Chances are the seniors won't know this is from sesame street and it really does a nice job of discussing vocation)
28. King of the Road (about not working)
29. Clementine (Miner)
30. If I had a Hammer

Granted, there are many songs in here I don't know and I have a list of about 25 more that I still need to explore. Final list to be compiled later!