'Working Man's Song' by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics and Meaning

Since 2021's release of Dangerous: The Double Album, Morgan Wallen has been on the fast track to country music superstardom.

Bolstered by 2023's standout record, One Thing At A Time, the Tennessee native has become the biggest name in the format, even infiltrating across genre lines and landing singles atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.

After a little over two years, the award-winning entertainer has finally arrived with a new batch of music in the form of his 37-track opus, I'm the Problem. The album is sprawling with his next era of record-breaking hits and beloved fan-favorites. Among them is his 'Working Man's Song.'

The collection's 31st offering, 'Working Man's Song' is a blunt anthem about punching the clock and laboring life away, resulting in a potent song set to join the ranks of country's great working tunes.

'Working Man's Song' is a gritty country anthem, smoldering with Bon Jovi-esque guitar riffs and bolstered by an arena-ready rhythm. Once the song begins – born of the smoke and fury of a rumbling rock-flecked arrangement – it rarely deviates from its steady beat and purposeful strings. For good reason, too. The song's staunch, unwavering composition only adds to the twangsty song's fed-up message.

"Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’"

From the beginning, 'Working Man's Song' paints an honest portrait of the Average Joe, the every man who is just working to get by. However, simply "getting by" is becoming a harder feat to accomplish and working is starting to feel a lot like dying.

Throughout the song, Wallen portrays a 9 to 5 clock-puncher who is growing increasingly frustrated with the system as he looks for some kind of relief on this long and rocky road to the middle.

He's getting more worn out as he makes the higher-ups' pockets fatter. After endless promises of raises and benefits that never come, he dreams of things like socking his corporate boss, but decides it's best to keep his head down. At the end of the day, he has debts to pay and a family to feed.

Much like his work boots, though, his soul – and his patience, too – seem to be wearing thin.

"Red blue right left they still workin’ us to death
And whatever’s leftover at the end’s to the IRS (to the IRS)
Head above water but I’m kickin’ like hell
Ain’t nobody lookin’ out for me but myself
Ain’t no gettin’ out from under all of these underpaid checks
And last time I checked"

While Wallen isn't that person and doesn't have to work himself to the bone in a typical 9 to 5 profession, he sings what many people are feeling in this day and age. They work themselves ragged for some semblance of the "American Dream," which is now just the ability to keep a roof over your head, food in your belly, and barely scrape by before the taxman comes knocking.

'Working Man's Song' is more than a song about work; it's a song about survival.

"Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (oooh, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (hell nah, oooh, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah"

As is often the case of late, the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter has so far remained tight-lipped on how the song came about.

However, when revealing the release date for I'm the Problem, Wallen provided fans with an insight into the theme of introspection that courses through the project as a whole.

“I have been a problem, for sure, and I've got no problem admitting that. But there are other sides to me as well," he explained. "I've spent the last 11 months really trying to figure out, 'Do I still want to be the problem? Is it time to move past that phase in my life? I think it probably is, and this might be the last time I get a chance to honestly say it.”

Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’

I punch the clock
Wanna punch a ticket to New York
And punch the boss
But they don’t pay enough for me to cover that cost
So I punch the sheetrock instead
Cover my debts, keep the family fed

They been promisin’ me
Another dollar and three
But that talk is just cheap
As these boots I’m wearin’
And that’s been wearin’ on more than my soul
And all that I know is

Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (oooh)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (oooh)

Red blue right left they still workin’ us to death
And whatever’s leftover at the end’s to the IRS (to the IRS)
Head above water but I’m kickin’ like hell
Ain’t nobody lookin’ out for me but myself
Ain’t no gettin’ out from under all of these underpaid checks
And last time I checked

Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (oooh, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (hell nah, oooh, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah

Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’
Lookin’ for my golden ticket
Can’t find no silver linin’
These days 9 to 5 feels more like 25 to life and
Tryin’ to make a livin’
Isn’t supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (oooh, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (hell nah, hell nah)
Supposed to feel like dyin’ nah (hell nah)

(Hell nah)
(Hell nah)
(Hell nah)
(Hell nah)

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