Work

(Partridge)

Jules Verne's Sketchbook cover

Recordings Art Lyrics Chords and Tablature

Recordings

1. Demo version.
   Released in November 1987 on the Jules Verne's Sketchbook cassette.

   Andy: “This (bassless) demo was put forward for BIG EXPRESS and was rehearsed in many different styles, motownesque, bluesy, reggaefied. But it resisted all treatments and was doomed to lay dormant in the corner of a cassette.”

   Also available on Fuzzy Warbles Volume Three.

   Andy: “If I'd have had a five track recorder I could have put a bass on this potential Big Express tune. But then Colin might not have liked that. But then nobody liked this song anyway bar me. So there it lay, skiving off, round the back of the factory, having a crafty fag.”

2. Demo version, 2023 remaster.
   Released on the reissue of The Big Express on 29 September 2023 in the U.K.

Art

[THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

Lyrics

Keep your fingers busy
Mentally or physically
What four-letter word
D'you know like ...

Look at me smile
Look at me doing their
Work
Y'see me shoveling the dirt
My how I sweat
But I don't mind
Cause it's work
You got me rolling up my shirt

There's all my old friends
Sat by the fountain drinking beer
Their days have no starts and no ends
They drift into pub nights with no
Promise for tomorrow

All that they want is some
Work
Work
Look at me smile
Look at me polish these
Tools
Am I breaking all the rules?
I cycle like mad
I don't want to be late for school
(Well it's night school)

Now all my new friends
Sit in their site huts drinking tea
My day has no start and no end
Drifts into home nights in my
Coffin by the fireside

Bugger this game
I know who's to blame
And that's
Work
Aw, work

Keep your fingers busy
Mentally or physically
What four-letter word
D'you know like

Oh! Work, work
Oh! Work, work

I'm back with my old friends
Sat by the Brunel drinking beer
Don't want this to ever end
We're living in fear of being
Misled by a new myth

Work
I don't want to go to work
Work
I don't want to go to work

Chords and Tablature

Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 21:21:01 +0900
From: SueokaAli <tb303acidmaker (at) icloud dot com>
Subject: Work (Andy Partridge Demo) Guitar Chords
Message-Id: <5C7054AA-1BFB-4374-8ADA-946377453EFF (at) icloud dot com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hello. I would appreciate it if you posted this on Chalkhills.

Here are chords of "work" I transcribed


Intro
E7
Keep your fingers busy
Mentally or physically
What four-letter word
D'you know like ...


Verse

F#7-E
(these cords here are in special form ; F#7:x546xx, E:xx999xx)
Look at me smile
Look at me doing their

A-E
(A:577655, E:022100)
Work
Y'see me shoveling the dirt
etc.


Chorus

G
There's all my
F#m
old friends
F
Sat by the
Em
fountain drinking
G
beer
Their days have no
F#m
starts and no ends
F
They drift into
Em
pub nights with no
A7
Promise for
x3423x-x6757x
tomorrow
etc.


Outro : same as verse

Work
I don't want to go to work
Work
I don't want to go to work


I hope this would be helpful to you.

Go back to XTC Reel by Real.