America's preachers tell me that there is no sermon
Which is looked forward to with less enthusiasm
Than a sermon about sin
Well, that's probably true
If we're talking about a secular sermon on the subject of hard work
Pregnant skyline of America
Was set in place one brick at a time
Now that represents a lot of callouses
America the beautiful is not an accomplished fact
Guaranteed to remain intact
God shed his grace on thee to be sure, but
This was waste land when God had it to himself
He handed man a hoe and said you want another Eden? All right, earn it
And all that's necessary for the weeds to take over again
Is for you and me to lay down that hoe
Work, work, work
Hard work
There is no gospel less popular
Than the gospel of hard work
Work, work, work, hard work
There is no gospel less popular
Get to work, get to work
We tell our young people how our country
Was carved out of the wilderness
No, it wasn't
Our nation was hammered and hoed and chopped and dug
And sawed and clawed out of the wilderness
By bare-handed men who asked nothing for nothing
America did not start out with an agricultural production
That's the awe and envy of the world
It was seeded first by sodbusting farmers
Who fought Indians and ranchers and cold and heat and drought
And bugs and flood and one another
The fruited plain spring forth from barren acres
Only after they had been watered with a lot of sweat
Work, work, work
Hard work
There is no gospel less popular
Than the gospel of hard work
Work, work, work, hard work
There is no gospel less popular
Get to work, get to work
I guess what I'm saying is that the more history I studied
Ours and others
The more certain I am that there is one fertilizer essential
To the survival of civilization
And that fertilizer is sweat
And I don't mean perspiration
I mean the kind of steamy streamy salty sweat
That's run from a man by hard physical work
Somehow the sweat gets into the soil of a farm
Or a factory or a city or a state or a nation
And everything thereabouts grows tall and strong
And tough enough to stand against any storm
But the day the sweat dries up, the soil dries up
And whole civilizations are buried in dust
Work, work, work
Hard work
There is no gospel less popular
Than the gospel of hard work
Work, work, work, hard work
There is no gospel, less popular
Get to work, get to work
Work, work, work
Hard work
Work, work, work
Hard work
Get to work