2016.06.14
Musician Keith Mullins, striking Herald editor
write song for workers everywhere
"It's for people everywhere who have been laid off, been shoved into early retirement, dealt with wage cuts, had their pensions slashed, been undervalued, been demeaned by bosses, been told they are no good because they're too old, been forced onto the street and been thrown into untenable situations that undermine the quality of what they do," says co-writer Randy Jones.
When Keith Mullins played a recording of Just Another Day during a gig at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck, the song resonated immediately.
"Two or three sets of tables, blue-collar-looking people, asked me 'Where can I get that song?' " the singer-songwriter says by phone from his home in Hunters Mountain, Cape Breton.
Mullins hopes the song, co-written with Randy Jones, an editor and reporter at The Chronicle Herald for 31 years before he was forced out on strike nearly five months ago, will hit a chord with workers everywhere. (Disclosure: Jones is an editor for LocalXpress.ca, which was started by striking Chronicle Herald newsroom workers.)
Available on YouTube, the video that was filmed at Inverary Resort and on Mullins' land on the Cabot Trail, interspersed with footage from the picket line shot by striking Herald photographer Eric Wynne, opens with this note:
The bossman yells, “Well, ain't that friggin' great.”
“Your lunch and your dinner's gonna have to wait.”
It’s just another day on the job.
The foreman screams, “You better smarten up, jack.”
“One more bad move and you're getting the axe.”
So you gotta bite your tongue another time, that’s a fact.
It’s just another day on the job.
No matter what we do for them, it's never enough.
But we'll find our way through, and rise above
It’s just another day, just another day, just another day on the job.
Meanwhile, the top dogs are raising their own pay,
cutting us back, and making more demands every day.
So we'll take it to the streets, and we'll fight our own way.
Just another day on the job.
No matter what we do for them, it's never enough.
But we'll find our way through, and rise above.
It’s just another day, just another day, just another day on the job.
You work hard as hell, puttin' in time,
treated like a number to fix the bottom line.
But they'll get what's due, all in good time.
So when you see ’em, you can smile and laugh.
Deep down you know you're much better than that.
Wish ’em well, and remember that
It’s just another day, just another day, just another day on the job.
"Inspired by striking Chronicle Herald employees whose commitment to journalism is unwavering. May this song be part of a resolution that secures the future of Nova Scotia's legacy newspaper and its dedicated employees."
The East Coast Music Award-winning Mullins has co-written tunes with Lennie Gallant, his cousin Gordie Sampson and Chris Kirby, among other well-known musicians, but he's also written with novices before.
He connected with Jones, whom he's never met, through a mutual friend, and says when he read Jones's lyrics, he recognized a song that was appropriate for the times.
"It was easy for me to get involved, because I believed in the words he was saying. As a songwriter, I have a responsibility to have a positive influence on listeners and society.
"When I heard 'It's just another day, just another day, just another day on the job,' I said 'That's your chorus, right there.' "
The co-write was a 50-50 effort, says Mullins, whose albums include Localmotive Farm, winner of the 2012 ECMA World Album of the Year, and The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project, which in 2012 won both the ECMA for Children's Album of the Year and Music Nova Scotia Children's Album of the Year.
"(Jones) had a ton of stuff and I edited it, changed some things here and there, made some words sing better. I gave it melody and turned the idea into hooks and chorus and added a bridge. The meat was from him, and I shaped it to be something I'd feel comfortable singing."
Speaking by phone after an afternoon picketing shift, Jones says in his characteristically humble fashion: "I'm just a guy who messes around with words, and sometimes not very well. Keith is so much more talented. He's an amazing songwriter, singer and instrumentalist who really knows how to capture the essence of what you want to say. I am blessed to have worked with him and his team and am just thankful for the opportunity.
"Our song is not only for the striking newsroom workers at the Chronicle Herald, who are the most talented, creative, honest, hard-working people I know, but it's also for many others.
"It's for people everywhere who have been laid off, been shoved into early retirement, dealt with wage cuts, had their pensions slashed, been undervalued, been demeaned by bosses, been told they are no good because they're too old, been forced onto the street and been thrown into untenable situations that undermine the quality of what they do.
"Keith and I want those people to know that they are valued and that everything they need to overcome those hardships is inside them."
Completing the video has been the realization of a lifelong dream for Jones, who has always been interested in the process of songwriting.
"I asked myself why did I ever lose sight of it," he says, noting he wanted to make people happy, to make people laugh and to look at their situations in another light.
Mullins has no formal publicity plans for Just Another Day, recorded at Lakewind Sound Studios in Point Aconi. He's just putting it out there, much as he did with his song Hard Working Hands in Tragedies.
Released a month ago as a free download from ReverbNation, with a request to contribute to #yymfire, it was a thank you to people who were helping out after the monster forest fires that ravaged Alberta, from first responders to those who were providing meals and places to stay.
It was viewed 18,000 times in two days and Maclean's magazine did a feature on it, Mullins says proudly.
"It got momentum, people felt the same way."
He's hoping people will connect in the same way with Just Another Day and plans to play it at his upcoming album release for The Heart of Everything at Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney on June 25.
"Songs like this always have an emotional impact on people who listen and think, ‘Yeah, this is what’s happening to me,' " Martin O'Hanlon, president of CWA Canada, the parent union of striking Chronicle Herald workers, said in an email when he was reached on his way home from France, where he was attending the International Federation of Journalists World Congress.
"This will be another morale boost for the Herald strikers, but it’s also sure to inspire other workers who have to deal with companies and bosses who don’t really give a damn about them."
Reprinted with permission of the Local Xpress, a a free online news site operated by striking members of the Halifax Typographical Union (CWA Canada Local 30130).