Lyrics

[Verse 1] My dad started east sometime in the 30s With the On-to-Ottawa men He'd enough of the camps and the dole and the handouts He wanted to work and to tie the loose ends He drifted from factory to foundry to flop-house The war sorted out what mere men could not In Sudbury's forges he worked like a madman Those years lost to hunger, dad never forgot [Verse 2] I headed west when I had turned twenty When the factories and foundries had closed And in my mind's eye I thought I might settle Out here where my father was raised and was born I worked as a jug-head, a roughneck, a bouncer I worked where I wanted, I drew damn good pay Saw no end to our luck and so we just pushed it But OPEC and mortgages ate it away [Chorus] Now the boom's gone to bust And we're down on the dole boys No treasure laid up, but family and friends Its pull up stakes now or pull up stakes later For a laboring man the road never ends [Verse 3] It seems to me somehow, this nation of migrants From father to daughter, from mother to son Must constantly shift from the east or the west 'Til we run out of work or of places to run Gone now the days when you live with your parents And their parents before them were bred and were born We must go where the work is to live any life boys Bend like a willow to weather the strom [Chorus] Now the boom's gone to bust And we're down on the dole boys No treasure laid up, but family and friends Its pull up stakes now or pull up stakes later For a laboring man the road never ends Yes, the boom's gone to bust And we're down on the dole boys For a laboring man the road never ends