Everybody Works But Father

A funny song about an unemployed dad, 1905.
words and music by Jean Havez

Part of a minstrel act, this one needs a child to sing it. Why wasn’t father working? In 1905 industry could get cheaper labor by using the women and children instead of men.

The sheet music:

Everybody Works But Father – Sheet MusicDownload

Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:

Everybody_Works_But_Father – MIDIDownload

Lyrics

  1. Every morning at six o’clock I go to my work
    Overcoat buttoned up ’round my neck, no job would I shirk
    Winter wind blows ’round my head cutting up my face
    I tell you what I’d like to have, my dear old father’s place

Chorus
Everybody works but father, and he sits around all day
Feet in front of the fire, smoking his pipe of clay
Mother takes in washing, so does sister Ann
Everybody works at our house but my old man

  1. A man named Work moved into town
    And father heard the news
    With Work, so near my father started shaking in his shoes
    When When Mister Work walked by my house
    He saw with great surprise
    My father sitting in his chair with blinders on his eyes
  2. At beating carpets father said he simply was immense
    We took the parlor carpet out and hung it on the fence
    My mother said, “Now beat it dear
    With all your might and main”
    And father beat it right back, to the fireside again

Sung here by Fred Feild: