Work Song (Break the Chains)

Charles Mingus

In life we’re told
What we work is what we are

Work on love
Work on life
Are we working together
To make a change

Work on
Work your life away
Telling yourself
You’re gonna rest
Some other day

Oh the lives we live
Wearing ourselves
Down to the bone

Gotta work
Gotta move
And break the chains (yeah)

Some folks ain’t nothing
But what they do to earn their pay
Forgetting to live their lives
In any meaningful way

And there are those that dance through life
Without any discipline
Throwing the blame on others
For the lives they’ve put themselves in

And we carry on
The work that others have done
Doing our best to steer it
The right way

Lord knows some folks carry the pain of work they have done
And they carry that weight
Way too long

So we gotta work on the things
That really matter to us
Work on the things that bring hope and love to us

Go on work

Work on the things that matter to us
Bring back hope and love
I believe my work here is done

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