The stories behind Teach Somebody the Trade

• Liner Notes: The Slide-Guitar Turn on "Teach Somebody the Trade" — Same mentorship ballad, but this take opens up a real guitar solo before it lets the song go quiet.
• Teach Somebody the Trade: A Call to the Next Generation of Biomeds — An Americana ballad turns a real retirement wave into a plain request: hand the trade down before the whistle blows.

Lyrics

The lot's got more machines than ever before

And a third of my teachers are heading for the door

Spinning climbs like a river past the levee wall

Trains moving through the wires in the halls

Not enough for coming to learn a trade

So I hand down what my foreman gave

Teach somebody the trade

For those who blows

Teach somebody the trade

That's how it goes

One more hand on the wrench

And my chair sits still

Teach somebody the trade

I believe they will

I believe that he will.

A third of us are counting down the years

Watching the young ones drive on past the light

So the manual stays open, the door unlocked

Come on in and learn, the bench never stops

Teach somebody the trade before the whistle blows

Teach somebody the trade, that's how it goes

One more hand on the wrench, my chair

sits still Teach somebody the trade I

believe they will

I was somebody's apprentice,

once myself

Learned it's not magic, just patience and a shelf

Of parts and times someone can to show

That's the debt I'm paying as I go

Teach somebody the trade before the whistle

blows

Teach somebody the trade, that's how it goes

One more hand on the wrench when my chair sits still

Teach somebody the trade

I believe they will

Come on in

There's room for one more