STEADY ON THE STEEL.

In this current day of whiners, wimps, wusses and weasels, it’s sometimes nice to go back and discover an old thing that’s so tough-as-nails and full of piss n’ vinegar, you wonder if musicians like this even exist anymore.

BLACKLIST were a working class heavy metal band from Milwaukee and by working class, I literally mean one (or more) of these fellas was an ironworker singing about blue collar life like swinging a hammer all day and drinking beer all night.

I wonder when the last time a group of working stiffs like Blacklist got a break in the music business. I could be wrong, but these days it seems like you need to be an intellectual hipster or be pre-assembled and manufactured to catch a break. I mean hell, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath used to work in a sheet metal factory (where he lost of the tips of his fingers which resulted in his playing style).

*Not the band Blacklist pictured here. Just some grizzly cats that probably listen to Blacklist.*

Get a load of these lyrics:

He’s busting ass for a living
On the forty-fifth floor
The cold winds howling
Got one foot in the door
He only wants an honest day’s pay
For a good day’s work
This life is gonna kill him
Those around him, they fear the worst

He tries to be the man they want to see, but
Somehow he never gets it right
Don’t want to see him fry,
Don’t want to see him die

The feel of the cold steel
The hammers pound
Breaks out in a cold sweat
Three hundred feet off the ground
But at five o’clock they hit the bars
And have a drink or ten
And when he thinks it’s over
Some fool tells him it never ends

But he’s steady on the steel
The way he lives, it’s the way he feels
He’s steady on the steel
You’re steady on the steel
The way you live, it’s the way you’re feeling
You’re steady on the steel