“Tin Man’s Blues”
Music by Dennis Genovese
Lyric by Paul Anderson
© American Trucker Publishing Jan 2000

(Verse 1)
This song's just a blues song, but it's something special to me.
Just my own brand of frustration, keeps going on endlessly.
It begins every morning at what some people call a career.
Part time after school that turned into twenty-something years,
It's the tin mans blues, stuck behind the wheel again,
Blacktop and the clear sky’s, are my only friends.
(Verse 2)
Way back when I got started, this job had style and class.
Dispatchers seemed caring, mechanics would bust their ass.
To keep your truck rolling darling, the money was reasonably fair.
But lately all you hear about is heartache and despair.
You’ve got some pencil pushing would-be, telling you how to drive,
When ten minutes in a bad one would put the teardrops
In that big mouths puny eyes.
(Verse 3)
Johnny came in from the North side, Pedro came in from the South.
Let's hear it for free trade, it's taking the food from my kid's mouth.
But hey, this is America, you got to love her good and bad.
As for trucking darling, the situation is just plain sad.
Dave Dudley was my hero with ten days on the road
Red Solvine had his teddy bear beside him in giddy yap go
Once a respected profession, that carried my family name,
Now the way the public's been treating me, makes my children hide in shame.
(Bridge)
Everything you eat, you wear, and you drive, or smoke
Don't you know it came to you darling on my big old heavy truck.
Eighty thousand pounds of metal, and twenty years of skill and luck.
Shortstop, Triplex and Tazmo, they're all still in the game.
But no, no, no, no, not the tin man, I'm getting out of the hammer lane.
Good-bye American trucking, trying to keep your pride alive.
In a livelihood that’s going down, it's going down, ain't going to survive.
Every car going down the road, seen a trucker with a heavy load,
Used to be a time when you could bet your life on his courtesy.
A trucker was a special breed, protecting you defensively.
I got the Tin Mans Blue's, and Shortstop, Triplex, and Tazmo, They’ve got them too