Friday Tunes: Boss Man

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is Gordon Lightfoot’s Boss Man. I thought I knew all of Lightfoot’s songs but this one was new on me. Lightfoot writes this song from a miner to his boss, but its no love song!

Boss Man Boss Man what do ya say
Gonna get you alone in the mine some day
Push your face down in the coal
'Cause you got no heart you got no soul

The miner’s anger stems from the constant tension he feels between his needs and the demands of the boss. The boss, likely responding to the profit imperative of capitalism, is only too happy to exploit the miner’s need to commodify his labour in order to access the necessities of life.

Holes in my pockets and holes in my shoes
If you're ready for me I'm ready for you
The company plan takes all my pay
Got a child in July and another last May

It is easy to dismiss Lightfoot’s lyrics about the undercurrent of violence in the workplace as hyperbole or from another time. Yet the threat of co-worker violence exists in all workplaces. When I worked at the Labour Board, I was surprised how forthright workers sometimes were about the power they could derive from the threat of violence.

I remember one day some workers explaining how they weren’t worried about retaliation for a union drive because “if the foreman did that, we’d kick the shit out of him behind the trailer.” Which is pretty much exactly what the supervisor said later on. At the time, I dismissed this as an aberration (I saw a lot of crazy shit at the Labour Board). Yet have a look at the spread of draconian workplace violence policies, wherein even the hint of violence brings immediate termination. 

That tells you employers fear violence.

Often such policies are couched in terms of mitigating the employer’s liability. But, deep down, I suspect employers have done the math about who are the many and who are the few. That’s why private security shows up whenever there are layoffs and the threat of getting fired for punching out your boss no longer holds much power.




Boss Man Boss Man what do ya say
I gotta get you alone in the mine some day
Boss Man Boss Man turn it around
If you don't look away how can I sit down

Look at this load upon my back
Gotta get this wheel back on the track
I can't hold on but I can't let go
And I can't say yes I can't say 'no'

Holes in my pockets and holes in my shoes
If you're ready for me I'm ready for you
The company plan takes all my pay
Got a child in July and another last May

Boss Man Boss Man what do ya say
Gonna get you alone in the mine some day
Push your face down in the coal
'Cause you got no heart you got no soul

Country life's the life for me
In ten more years I'll a pensioner be
The younger lad knows when the girls are out
But you might say he's a rural sprout

Boss Man Boss Man what do ya say
Gonna get you alone in the mine some day
Boss Man Boss Man clear the track
You're gonna tear the skin right offa my back

Boss Man, Boss Man what do ya say
If you can't lend a hand then get outta my way
It'll be murder in the first degree
If you ever lay your hands on me

Boss Man Boss Man pay my rent
A dollar I've earned is a dollar I've spent
The company plan takes all my check
For breakin' my back and riskin' my neck

Boss Man Boss Man what do ya say
I gotta get you alone in the mine some day
I can't hold on but I can't let go
And I can't say yes I can't say 'no'

-- Bob Barnetson