Company Man

I started working here when I was twenty-one

Summer of '56

My life had just begun

Back then this place was some place to be

Thought I could grow with the company

Never took a dime

Never raised a fuss

Right is right

Even for those of us

Who make a dollar while the man makes ten

They say hard work pays off in the end

Everything I got

I got with my own hands

Never wanted to be no company man

So I kept my eyes open and my mouth shut

Saw my workload increase and my pay cut

But I bought a house

Started a family

Still had some faith in the company

Hard time's hit '67 late

Devil must've opened up the flood gates

My wife, she left me for some other guy

And in my heart I guess I always knew why

She was never gonna understand

Never wanted to be no company man

'79 brought a dose of reality

We'd all heard the rumours about the company

One day they shut us down

Throughout the south

And keeping my job meant moving out

So I got hired on at the local factory

Couldn't see uprooting my whole family

Never thought I'd be starting over at this stage

Taking shit from some punk

Half my age

No retirement

No hospital plan

Never wanted to be no company man

Long since retired, now, from the factory

Hardly ever think about the company

Kinda lonesome, now the kids are grown

Moved away

Families of their own

Got me a little house and a piece of land

Never wanted to be no company man

Sometimes in this world you gotta make a stand

Never wanted to be no company man