"Take This Job and Shove it" Named Among 'Songs That Define Outlaw Country' is Now Used in Strikes

Few songs have lived a double life quite like "Take This Job and Shove It." On its surface, it's a country song about a man walking off a job after losing the woman who made it worth showing up for. In the real world, it has become something else entirely - a battle cry for workers, a fixture on picket lines and one of the most unlikely anthems in the history of American labor.

Taste of Country named it one of the songs that define the outlaw country movement, placing it alongside the genre's most essential recordings in their ranking of the 30 Best Outlaw Country Songs.

The Song Behind the Anthem

The story of "Take This Job and Shove It" begins not with Paycheck but with David Allan Coe - the late outlaw country legend who wrote the song and recorded his own version in 1978. Coe's recording came after Paycheck had already taken the track to the top of the country charts, marking Paycheck's only song to reach No. 1 in his career. That chart position alone would cement the song's place in country music history. What happened next went far beyond that.

Although the lyrics are rooted in a specific personal story - a man losing the woman who made the work worth the paycheck and deciding that without her, the job isn't worth having either - the title phrase resonated with anyone who had ever felt ground down, undervalued or pushed past their limit by an employer. That is, essentially, everyone.

From Honky-Tonk to Picket Line

Decades after its release, "Take This Job and Shove It" has found a second life as a genuine workers' rights anthem, adopted by labor organizers and used during strikes across the country.

It is a remarkable journey for a song born in the outlaw country tradition, a genre defined by its rejection of both Nashville convention and mainstream expectation. In that sense, the song's adoption by workers' movements is entirely appropriate. Outlaw country was always about refusing to do what you were told.

David Allan Coe, who passed away in April 2026 at age 86, never had a bigger commercial hit than the ones he wrote for other people. "Take This Job and Shove It" is the most famous of them - a song that outlasted its moment, outlasted its genre and is still being sung today in places its writer never could have imagined.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 1:00 AM.