Labour & Pop Culture: Every Little Kiss

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is Bruce Hornsby’s “Every Little Kiss”. This melancholy song is about a worker separated from the one s/he loves by work and the isolation that entails.

Way out here, working on the docks
Everyone sees the long day through
Well, what would I do without the nights and the phone
And the chance just to talk to you

The idea that “Everybody here's a number, not a name” may well resonate with camp workers “As (they) sit alone, after a long day/In the absence of company”, particularly those working over the holidays.

Hornsby covers the flip side of migration on the beautiful The River Runs Low, which focuses on those left behind when workers leave for jobs. There is no video I can find but you can hear it here.

This is a Ben Cameron cover (you can hear the lyrics a bit more clearly than the muddy Hornsby videos I could find).



Way out here, working on the docks
Everyone sees the long day through
Well, what would I do without the nights and the phone
And the chance just to talk to you

Whoa, what would I do now
Hey, just to talk to you
A thousand miles away, hey hey

What I wouldn't give for only one night
A little relief in sight
Someday when times weren't so tight

When the day goes down on water town
When the sun sinks low all around
That's when I know I, I need you now
Yes, you're what I miss, every little kiss
Every little one, every little one

Everybody here's a number, not a name
But I guess it's all right with me
As I sit alone, after a long day
In the absence of company

Whoa, I let my mind wander
A thousand miles away hey hey
What I wouldn't give for only one night
A little relief in sight
Someday when times weren't so tight

When the day goes down on water town
When the sun sinks low all around
That's when I know I, I need you now
Yes, you're what I miss, every little kiss
Every little one, every little one

What I wouldn't give for only one night
A little relief in sight
Someday when times weren't so tight
When the day goes down on water town
When the sun sinks low all around
That's when I know I, I need you now

Yes you're what I miss, every little kiss
Every little one, every little one
What I wouldn't give for only one night
A little relief in sight
Someday when times weren't so tight

When the day goes down on water town
When the sun sinks low all around
That's when I know I, I need you now
Yes, you're what I miss, every little kiss
Every little one, every little one

-- Bob Barnetson