These Tunes Reflects the Hardships and Blessings of Retirement

5 Songs to Play When You Want Someone to Hear the Importance of Pensions

By ALLEN JONES/TEXPERS Communications Manager

Retirement. We are either looking forward to achieving it after decades of hard work or worry we might not have enough money to live on when our working days are over. The subject is debated on by politicians, researched by data crunchers, and planned for by public pension fund administrators and trustees on behalf of police officers, firefighters, municipal employees, and other dedicated civil servants.

Retirement has been the basis of novels and film scripts, pondered by philosophers, and poets have romanticized it. Retirement also is the subject of songs. Some songwriters even specifically mention pension benefits in their music. 

Typically, these songs are not catchy pop ballads broadcast on repeat from radio stations. Instead, many of these songs express messages of hard work, dedication, achievement, and loss. Some of them, you may not have ever heard.

“Lots of topical songs are often forgettable, either because the events recounted or cause championed quickly fades from public interest or because they’re just not particularly well-written, well-sung or well-played,” says John Weingart in an email interview with TEXPERS.

He knows a thing or two about music and politics. Since 2000, he has been the associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, where he directs the institute’s Center on the American Governor. On Sunday evenings, Weingart hosts Music You Can’t Hear on the Radio, a program featuring folk music, bluegrass, and other American roots music on New Jersey’s WPRB-FM.

Last year, TEXPERS began searching for songs specifically about pensions – public or private – and asked Weingart for his thoughts on a few of our selections. If you are looking to hear what pension benefits mean to those who have them, or how benefits lost impacted those who once had them, we have cobbled together a few of the most notable pension songs we could find. 

Here are five songs about pensions to add to your favorite music cue:

“White House Blues” by Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers

Album: Anthology of American Folk Music Vol. 1: Ballads

Year: 1952

Although the anthology album featuring “White House Blues” was released in the early 1950s, the song was written in 1926. About the death of President William McKinley, the song has become a staple for many bluegrass bands that play it to this day, says Weingart. “Occasionally, bands have added a verse or two such as a version by Bob Hoban recorded on the day Jimmy Carter was elected president,” he says.

Essential Lyrics:

Hush up, little children, now don’t your fret 

You’ll draw a pension at your papa’s death

“Casey Jones” by Mississippi John Hurt 

Album: Shake That Thing 

Year: 1986 

This song tells the true story of how railroad engineer Casey Jones died on April 30, 1900, when his train collided with a stalled freight train. After the wreck, a man who knew Jones composed the folk song. Casey Jones’ ballad was song among railway laborers. The first recorded version of the song is thought to have occurred in 1910 by singer Billy Murray, who reportedly sold over 1 million copies. Musician Mississippi John Hurt recorded the song in 1928, but it was never released. The musician performed multiple live versions in the 1960s, one of which is featured below. Weingart says folk singer Dave Van Ronk, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, and other musicians heard Hurt’s recording and included the song in their own concerts and on their own albums. 

Essential Lyrics: 

Mama, mama, oh, how can it be? 

My daddy got killed on the old I.C. 

Hush your mouth I said and hold your breath 

You’re going to draw a pension after daddy’s dead

“Christ for President” by Billy Bragg

Album: Mermaid Avenue

Year: 1998

Though Stephen “Billy” Bragg set the lyrics to music, Woody Guthrie wrote the song, Weingart says. Bragg’s music often blends folk music, punk rock, and protest songs with political messages. This song suggests replacing America’s president with Jesus Christ would result in prosperity for everyone, including at retirement.

Essential Lyrics:

Oh it’s Jesus Christ our president

God above our king

With a job and pension for young and old

We will make hallelujah ring

“Work for the Working Man” by Bon Jovi

Album: Circle

Year: 2009

In rock band Bon Jovi’s 11th studio album, singer Jon Bon Jovi asks, Who is going to work for those who have lost their pension-benefit jobs and have trouble finding suitable work. Before the band released the album, David Axelrod, U.S. President Barack Obama’s chief adviser, had the lyrics to the song framed and hung in his White House office. 

Essential Lyrics: 

I lost my pension, they took my ID 

These were my friends, these were my dreams 

These were my hopes, these are my dreams 

Can you hear me?

“What a Way to Go” by Seasick Steve

Album: You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Year: 2011

In “What a Way to Go,” singer-songwriter Steven Gene Wold, also known as Seasick Steve, discusses the decades of hard work put into earning a government pension only to end up dying shortly after retirement and passing it on to family.

Essential Lyrics:

Twenty five years working for the state

Saved all your money, got a good rate

Always thinking ‘bout that pension plan

The day of retirement, the promised land, well …

If anything, these songs are examples of how important pension benefits are to workers. Those who wrote and performed them understood the hard work that people put into earning retirement benefits, how pensions can benefit families when a worker dies, the political ramifications of supporting secure retirements, and the devastation that occurs when benefits are lost.

Next time you want someone to know how important defined-benefit pensions are to your fund’s active and retired members, consider playing them a song.

Do you know of a pension benefit song that we didn’t feature in this post? Share it with us by providing a link to the song in the comments section below.

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