FACTORY^©

Live 1978-1981 version

Early in the morning factory whistle blows
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light
It's the working, the working, just the working life

Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life
The working, the working, just the working life

Well end of the day, factory whistle cries
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes
And you just better believe, boy, somebody's gonna get hurt tonight
It's the working, the working, just the working life
It's the working, the working, just the working life
Hmmmmm
Hmmmmm
Hmmmmm
Hmmmmm
Yeah

This is the live version used during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour. The above lyrics refer to the 15 Dec 1978 performance at Winterland, San Francisco, CA.

Check also the album version (more details on the song), outtake version 1, outtake version 2, and live 1999 version.

Spoken intro on 04 Aug 1978 at the Civic Centre, Charleston, VW:

Anyway... We'll let them get that ??? . I grew up in this town of about 10 000 people, yeah. And... my father ??? to see my father twice during the day, I used to come in at night, and... he'd be sitting in the dark in the kitchen table. I just see the light of cigarette, but sometime he call me to come back and sit down with him, sometimes I just go up to bed. Then I... in the morning I hear him... my bedroom was right over the backyard, and... I hear him getting up at 6 a.m. he go out to the backyard. He used to buy these 100 dollar junkers, these cars, and he'd be popping the hood 6 a.m. laying on the cold ground trying to get it started. And him, and his father worked in this factory, plastics factory in town, and... I ain't. And... this is a song I wrote for him.

Spoken intro on 09 Aug 1978 at the Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH:

Alright... This is uh... Gonna do this for Scott and the guys from Bookpark... You guys... Met you guys last night, driving around all night trying to find me (chuckles)... But uh... Alright, Danny, gimme the... This is uh... I grew up in a small town, I remember... I used to see my old man twice a day. I used to see him once, once at night when I came in and he'd be sitting in the kitchen in dark, smoking a cigarette, drinking a six pack of beer. Then in the morning, my bedroom was out over the backyard and I could always hear him at 6 o'clock popping the hood to one of those 100 dollar junk cars he used to buy, laying on the cold ground trying to get it started to go to work. And uh, he worked in a factory and his father did. I wrote this song for him.

Spoken intro on 15 Dec 1978 at Winterland, San Francisco, CA:

My pap's listening to me on the radio, so this for him. My bedroom used to be, used to be back out, back over the backyard, and... I always remember in the morning I used to hear my father out back underneath the hood of the car trying to get it started so we'd go to work, and I remember sitting in the dark, so that's for him.

Spoken intro on 25 Oct 1980 at the Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OH:

When I grew up, I used to, I used to hate having to come home at night because my father'd work all day, and every day at the end of work he'd come home, he'd eat dinner, he'd sit in the kitchen and turn out the lights, smoke a cigarette, drink a six-pack of beer and I used to hate coming in after he'd been sitting there for a few hours. And at the time I couldn't, I remember I was, it wasn't till I got to be about 28 or 29, I started to think back and try to see what my parents had done with their lives, and why it was so hard for us to, to be together when I was young, and uh...

Spoken intro on 05 Nov 1980 at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ:

My old man never got any chances and in most of his life and he only knew one thing.