For the whole of my adult working life, I was a slave to the rhythm of schools. Every work day began early in the morning and went until late afternoon after the kids had all gotten safely back home. My work week began on Monday and went until Friday. My yearly work cycle followed the seasons, beginning in the Fall, slogging my way through Winter, teaching past spring time, finishing up just as summer was about to begin. I did this for thirty years in a row before retiring in 2018. Because of how the world of my work transpired, there was an ebb and a flow to the way I experienced the outside world. If I was being honest, I guess that I knew deep inside that there were other people out there in my community who experienced their day differently than I did, but it sure didn’t seem that way. Everyone I knew, everywhere I looked, all seemed to be grinding it through the week waiting to exhale once late Friday afternoon came and went and our weekend break had finally arrived. We all relaxed on Friday night and then ramped up our energy in order to squeeze all of our own personal responsibilities and obligations into that 48 hour window of opportunity that had just opened up. As I aged, Friday changed from being a night on the town and became an evening of rest. Saturday was the day to socialize, shop, get projects done around the house. Sunday, during the day, was the time to finish whatever jobs you could get done as the afternoon ticked away and then, after supper, we’d start gearing up for another week at work. In the blink of an eye, the weekend that we had all waited for with such anticipation was over. A new work week began and the cycle repeated itself. On and on it went, week in and week out. It seemed to me that we were all in the same boat.
Then I retired in 2018 and discovered that we were not all in the same boat at all. Freed, as I was, from the daily school routine, I found out that there was an entirely new rhythm to life for people who did not work, as well as for those who did work that didn’t involve being in a school. When I first started walking to town during that part of the day when I used to be at school, I found the town to be very quiet, with usually only seniors ambling around and new moms pushing strollers and me there. No one seemed in a hurry. The atmosphere was very calm and relaxed. It was during these morning strolls that I found out the shopkeepers have a rhythm, too. The early hours of the morning seemed to be the time when shelves were restocked and displays were changed. It was quiet and relaxed in the stores of my town, too. The beautiful beach that we have in Cobourg, which can host hundreds and hundreds of people on a warm day, was almost always empty when I would go by. Just me and the seagulls and the odd metal detection enthusiast for company. It was as if I had been spit out from within the cogs and gears of the work-a-day machine and had landed softly in an empty meadow. The sense of relaxation in my mind felt akin to the warmth of sunshine on my skin. It was all intoxicating and blissful.
The reason I mention all of this is because being out of the everyday flow of the working world is how the song “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy came to be. Back in 1982, Loverboy released their second album, called Get Lucky. This was the followup to their highly successful self-titled debut album that had spawned chart topping hits such as “The Kid is Hot Tonite” and “Turn Me Loose”. That debut album went multi-platinum, selling well over a million copies worldwide. The success that Loverboy achieved right out of the gate allowed them to tour around the globe, opening for all manner of their musical heroes such as ZZ Top, Styx, Journey and Foreigner. Because of such initial success, the members of the band had a measure of financial security that allowed them to not have to experience the work-a-day world that most of their fans knew all too well. Between tours, the band had time to relax and explore their surroundings. It was on one such jaunt to the beach that guitarist Paul Dean found himself alone on the sand in the middle of a sunny day. It struck him as odd that a beach could be so empty during the middle of the day, but then he realized that everyone except him must all be at work. Because Dean was a songwriter as well as a guitarist, he was always looking for ideas that he could develop into songs. The more he thought about all those folks who were just itching to finish their shift and their work week and get to the weekend, the more the idea for a song came to mind. Initially, Dean came up with the song title “Waiting for the Weekend”. When the band next met up, he showed singer Mike Reno his idea and some of the lyrics he had put together. Reno liked the song but thought a better title would be “Working for the Weekend”, as that was what the people were actually doing…they were working their way to freedom, not just idly standing around waiting for that freedom to arrive. Dean agreed. Together, Dean, Reno and fellow band members Matt Frenette (on drums), Doug Johnson (keyboards) and Scott Smith (bass guitar) structured the song so that the energy in the verses seemed pent up (to simulate being stuck at work) while the chorus acted as a trigger, releasing that energy just like you see in movies when school lets out for summer vacation and everyone pours out through the doors, tossing papers and notebooks into the air.
“Working for the Weekend” propelled the band into the upper echelon of the Canadian music scene. The album Get Lucky sold over four million albums. The band won six Juno awards that year, the most ever by an artist or band in a single year! “Working for the Weekend” became a No. 1 song for the band in Canada and a top ten hit in many other countries, including America. Throughout the 1980s, Loverboy toured constantly as an opening act and as headliners for their own tours. Their first five albums all went gold or platinum. They had a string of hit songs, such as “When It’s Over”, “Hot Girls in Love” and “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”. As the 80s drew to a close, the band went on hiatus for several years. But in 1991, they reunited to perform at a benefit concert for one of the members of the Canadian band Chilliwack, who had taken ill in the U.S. and had racked up huge medical bills. That concert for musician Brian MacLeod rekindled the band’s love of performing together. Loverboy reunited for good and have been touring the world ever since. While the band has released a few albums since Y2K has come and gone, they are mainly a nostalgia act these days and that is just fine with the boys in the band. According to Dean, Loverboy’s discography contains some of the most recognizable and popular songs ever released by a Canadian band, so of course, they are going to play those songs for their fans even after all these years. After all, it is not for nothing that Loverboy is in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. And while all of their songs bring about a positive reaction from their audience, the one song that generates the wildest and most enthusiastic response is “Working for the Weekend”. It got everyone moving and certainly still does the same for fans all over the world today.
The premise of that song still holds true over forty years later. We all treasure the feeling that comes from being in control of our own personal time. To not have to punch a time clock or answer to a bell is such a blessing for those of us who are retired. For those who still have some time to go before you are permanently released from the world of work, that taste of freedom is confined to the weekend. What a delicious forty-eight hours those are! To all who find themselves in that position, let “Working for the Weekend” be your anthem. To those of us for whom every day is like the weekend, the song still rocks for us, too. Maybe I’ll play it on a Monday morning just for kicks! Why not?! What else am I doing? Oh yes, I know…anything I want because I am retired!!!! Life is awesome when you don’t have to work. For those of you who do, at least you have the weekend to look forward to in a few days. And a kickass song from Loverboy to tide you over. Cheers.
The link to the official website for Loverboy can be found here.
The link to the video for the song “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy can be found here. ***The lyric version is here.
The link to the Canadian Walk of Fame (where Loverboy has a star) can be found here.
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Certainly remember Loverboy and they had their moments in the sun. It was interesting to read about your career as a teacher and how you were out of rhythm with others. I have a very close friend who was a police officer who had made similar observations about how his work schedule put him out of sync with our group of friends. We had many a get together without him. He’s been retired for awhile and we’re in touch constantly. It was good to be reminded of these things.
Funny thing though, I never realized that I was out of sync until I left teaching. Then I was in a whole new life stream. It was really interesting to me initially, now it is just the way it is.
You were to busy living life!