Rush: Working Man Meaning

Working Man Lyrics

I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time

[Chorus:]
It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the...

1. anonymous

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   Dec 31st 2020 !⃝

   The man did not want to be a miner. His father did not want him to be a miner. Yet he goes to the mine at 16 years and stays there till age 64. Then he will meet you at his door and tell you stories so vivid you can see what he faced. Finally now he will never again go underground.
   
   Written by a former miner,
   John Gossett
2. anonymous

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   Oct 24th 2008 !⃝

   The eponymous and anonymous (purposely left anonymous so as to allow the audience to identify with the character) Working Man and his life are described in this song from the band's early days.
   
   Geddy's vocal sections give a fair description of the Working Man's normal day, as shown by the quotations "I get up at seven, yeah, and I go to work at nine", "I get home at five o'clock and I take myself out a nice cold beer", and the repetition of the first line near the end of the song. More descriptive than the singing in this song, however, is the instrumental section in the middle.
   
   The instrumenal section of Working Man, according to the lyrics quoted earlier, most likely takes place after the Working Man comes home from his job and before he gets up the next day to go back to work. This part of any person's day is normally composed of recreational or social activities and sleep, and provided that the "nice, cold beer" and "wonderin' why there's nothing going down here" consist of his activities, Lifeson's guitar solos in the instrumental part would then take place during the Working Man's dreams.
   
   In his dreams, the Working Man's world transforms from one dominated by a monotonous, repetitive cycle to one of impossible, fantastic wonders that could never be achieved in his everyday life, as exhibited by the change of the guitar part's tone from the slow, repetitive chords in the vocal parts to the fast-paced solos in the instrumental part.
   
   However, the Working Man soon has to wake up at seven and go to work once more, thus beginning another of his days, and given that going to work, coming home, dreaming, and getting back up for work is how the Working Man's normal day is structured, it is most likely that the lyrics of "they call me the working man/I guess that's what I am" shows that at some point, he had grown accustomed to his life as a Working Man.

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