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While sitting in the Periodontist’s office the other day waiting to get my gums cut (sheesh), I was reading a letter in Popular Mechanics from an irate reader who was objecting to the new Dewalt charger / radio. Seems she didn’t like the idea of Blaring jobsite “noise” and wanted to return to the “good old days” of “quiet craftsmen” so her “naps wouldn’t be disturbed”???
This got me thinking – I play classical when working alone (Organ, Pedal Harpsichord or trio sonatas), but let the guys play what ever they want, (Rock / Country).
I’ve never had a complaint yet – how about you?
Replies
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I think it's important to make a job site a inviting place to work so that the trades people can feel relaxed and hopefully do their best work. I usually just put the radio out and let them set it to whatever they want (if anything). At the same time I make a point of picking up the coffee cups while they are watching!
*I make a very obvious effort to pick trash - it does not help. I also pick up nails when ever I see them in the dirt - funny, I am the only one to get flats, two this month. As for music, the big guy on our crew will get violent if you mess with his gospel. I don't see how music of any kind can be more intrusive than power saws, compressors, and delvery trucks. Tell the lady to get a life.
*ALL MY DAYS AS A LOW RIDER...well, what I usually do is sing to the guys at work! It goes over real well when subs come on the job, too! ...BUM, BUM,BUM...
*Use a little common sense. Don't bring the 12's in and blast away. If the customer says "no" then no it is. Doing retail work it's a way to get shut down. Most important be civil. If there is a dispute because of different tastes cut it off. If You are alone do what you want but don't poop Your pants when you turn around and someone scare the bejeezus out of You. IMHO, Skip Jim Your note should be under another post. "What do You sing on the jobsite?". Completely different subject.
*I got one of the Dewalt Jobsite radios for fathers day this year and everyone on the crew has thanked my family for it. It has good sound quality and saves one of those sometimes valuable outlet spaces. As for taste in music most of our crew prefers country but we have classifed friday as rock day.Most of our jobs are in the country so it sometimes just depends on which station comes in the best.As for the days of the "Quite Craftsman" it was hard enough to find electricity on the job then much less a portable radio. I have to wonder if this lady has a radio in her car and if she just wants to get back to the days of a quite drive in the country.
*I think the rap on the DeWalt charger/radio is that it was written up (advertised?) as being able to play over or drown out a circular saw - not just loud but VERY LOUD. I don't know how many decibels the thing is supposed to be rated at, but it can reportedly a bunch. It might only be an issue if people are of the "if some is good, more is better, and too much is just enough" school of thought, but sound levels have a way of escalating. Some towns are now passing laws about how loud things can be at a nearby dwelling, I don't know how these laws are interpreted at a construction site (they might only be enforced for us motorcyclists and for the teenage set...)One also wonders as to the effect on those on the job site as to hearing loss. My own hearing got blasted out when I ran jackhammers in heavy construction some years back (aided by straight pipes on my Chevy and motorcycle, very loud rock music, etc.). I can't even hear the radio in my car without hearing aids. I would recommend that everyone wear hearing protector type headphones on most job sites rather than listen to a cranked up DeWalt radio. You can lose a number of dbs of hearing and hardly notice and then you lose a couple of more dbs and it is as if suddenly everyone is moving their mouth but not saying anything understable... If you have to turn up the TV above its normal volume when you come back from a day on the job, it's time to forget about the DeWalt and get some ear plugs. If you get any ringing in your ears, it is definitely time for serious protection. It is not fun when even with $3000 worth of hearing aids I often can't understand my favorite 10 year old...
*Skip, cut Jimbo some slack... ya see he's a left-over from the Haight-Ashbury District... and it's just kinda, like, well, you-know Man... groovy.
*And, speaking of music, I was just thinking yesterday as I was not listening to my car radio, how many popular songs are there written about builders? I can think of only one about carpenters (other than by the Carpenters) and that is "If I Were a Carpenter". Can't think of any about contractors, roofers, masons...
*I own a C.D. By a guy named Joseph Crookston. One of his songs is "Hands,metal and wood". It is essentially an Ode to his father (a roofer).I think Joe is based in Minneapolis but the Crookston family is very well known in several facets of the roofing business in N.E. Ohio
*"Grandpa Was A Carpenter" John Prine
*George I was supporting Jimbo 100% and only meant to imply that as Johny Cash once said " God respects a man when he works but he Loves a man when he sings". I thought this issue was deserving of it's own posting. When We lift our voices we lift our spirits. Looking back historically some primitive societies have vested their culture in oral tradition ie.songs. No My friend I think we should perpetuate this tradition in the "Oral Tradition of Carpenters and Builders" (soon to be released on CD). Post Your favorite song (not one You listen to, one You sing) and maybe we could all lift our voices together. Maybe if We all started singing at once our voices would fill the air and be like a lyrical "Hands across America" with other voices from Australia for example not to leave anyone out. Hell I'm feeling so good about it I'm going out in the shop and sing a little right now. Let's see where did I put My Pavorotti sing along book? Hi Ho..Hi Ho.. COME ON NOW EVERYBODY SING!
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You've obviously never heard "Hands in Wood" by Luke and Jenny Anne Bulla....gosh, they're just a couple of kids. They were guest artists on "A Prarrie Home Companion" one Saturday night and did the tune...I subsequently requested its playing on the bluegrass show that I listen to on Sundays. It's a tune about a Dad (not sure if it's from the perspective of his son or daughter) with a chorus that goes,
With his hands in wood he gave it all he had,
Never giving up, when the times got bad,
He was a living example and we understood
That he was at his best with his hands in wood.
Ask me nicely and I'll try to scare up the lyrics to the verses.
Brian
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I've no objection to workers listening to the radio when at my house, with the following exception: turning up the volume so that the radio on one side of the house can be clearly heard by the worker on the opposite side or so that it can be heard over the Senco nail gun and compressor. I don't have to live with the workers after the job's over, but I do have to live with my neighbors.
We also have quiet hours until 6:30 AM in our neighborhood, but hammering and radios at 7:00 AM on Saturday is too early, even if legal.
*I like the radio on the job. Just don't have it on when we are trying to discuss the job. I find it distracting. I can't work without rock or alternitive in the background. I also like clasical and jazz. There is one guy on the crew who listens to talk radio. I don't much care for that. He turns it off when I come around.Don't play country music around me. It just irritates me. I don't know why. I guess because it all sounds the same (well most of the new stuff) and it has that white trash beat. Now I know I'm gonna offend some people with that remark. I do like Blue grass. Bela Fleck is one of my favorites. And Merle Haggard has a place in my heart. But Garth? Sorry man, just can't take it. I grew up on radio stations out of La. Great R&B, blues and what they used to call soul music. Marvin Gay and Otis were my idols. You can play that all day as far as I'm concerned. Just love it. Got to have music when I work. But I turn it down or off when the customer comes around.Ed. Williams
*I just saw John Prine perform live last weekend.Hey, maybe some of us can clear out a corner of the Woodshed Tavern and bring in some Live Music.
*Robert Earl Keen is headed here. I think he has made some popular stations recently.
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Well, I must be the only one, then.... I am a contractor and musician and love listening to music, so much so that I am a compulsive station-hopper. I don't allow radios on my jobs because of factors like:
(1) Drywall tapers are all metal-heads and their radios always have the worst speakers,
(2) Framers like rock-and-roll but always play it too loud because of all the noise they are making,
(3) Laborers (in L.A. anyway) listen to Banda music which involves accordians (enough said),
(4) Roofers have coat-hangers for antennae and can't get a clear signal which makes me nuts in any kind of music, and lastly
(5) I suffer ADD (Attention to Detail Disorder) and get lost in the music and, ending up humming a tune at the toolbox of my truck, fascinated by the crunch on the lead guitar part, thinking "now, what did I come out here for?" Many years ago I found it much simpler to just make a rule of no radios on my jobsites. The homeowners appreciate it, we all communicate a little easier, and there is never a dispute about which kind of music we were going to listen to.
Ben the Bassoonist
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Ed - Don't forget Al Green and Aretha in there! Allman Brothers. (how about Joan Armatrading and Tracey Chapman?) - jb
*When it comes to jobsite music, there are two worlds here. New construction, or even major additions differ from interior remodels (kitchen/bath, bedroom, etc...) or just plain repair jobs. When working interior jobs like these, you can pretty much rule out jobsite music going. I have found that the least amount of interruptions to the client's daily routine, the better. Most watch tv, have friends, neighbors, or relatives visit (they all want to see how things are going), or talk on the phone. Loud noises (like they can be avoided) bother them, so we try to keep the noise level tolerable. Also, most of my clints are older, and I don't think they would appreciate my type of rock music. I don't care much for the heavy metal, head bangin' stuff, but give me that old time rock and roll any day.Like Ed, country music just irritates me. If you want to really hear some irritating music, try Cajun Zydeco. This stuff will drive you nuts (unless you've been drinking, then you find your feet tapping to the beat). Anyway, common sense will dictate when, what type, and where music should be played. James DuHamel
*Far out.
*...well, what about "marching" songs? - jb
*Hey, I went into a mall shop while waiting for the wife intending to address the shortage of old Motown stuff in my CD's. (plenty on vinyl). Asked the little nose ring clerk where the soul section was and got a blank look. Explained what I was after and was directed to a section called something like "Geezer Alternative" where I found Aretha et al. Not sure how they clasify music anymore. If you play blues or R&B with a cowboy hat on it's country western? And what are my beloved Pogues? JonC
*You guys are blessed. All our subs out here in SoCal play nothing but Mexican Ranchero music.I finally had to ban all radios.
*I've got a radio in the shop thats been on twentyfour hours a day for a couple of years, tuned to a seventies classic rock station. The same stuff I listened to in my formative years. Usually go tuneless at the job site, some folks just dont like music while their working [my dad]. I was working around a couple of young tile setters recently that were blaring rap or hip-hop or whatever they call it. Nearly drove me into a homocidal rage after an hour or so, and I'm only thirty seven, not nearly old enough for the [you long haired punks with your rock and roll] old man syndrome. I just dont get that kind of "music".
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Took awhile to get used to but as I've heard from some that I work with: "don't have the radio on from one of the trucks while on the job site. Don't bring a radio to the site either, you end up listening to Paul Harvey or them dudes from Texas and not doing what you were hired to do. Yeah, the work may go faster so they say, so talk to the guy next to you, but radios will not be played". I guess the radio and all of it's distracting pleasures are just that-distracting. Why lose a finger over inattentiveness or put a hole for window where it doesn't belong? Now, if I'm going somewhere to get those widgets we forgot, or at home in my own shop, the classical, jazz, oldies or the rock-n-roll is on depending upon my mood.
*I know I 'm new, but I have to throw in my opinion. If the homeowner is going to be around, NO radio. If in a house that isn't occupied, or new construction, I let the crew listen to what ever they want. (Except rap, can't stand that noise) In the morning it's usually Howard Stern, or rock and roll. After lunch they fight over metal or country. Frankly as long as there is something in the backround keeping my mind at ease I'm ok. (Besides when it's silent I start hearing the voices in my head "Why do you pay these guys" LOL)
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At Borders a couple months ago, they hardly had ANY cassettes. It is gettin hard to find anything older anymore. Who the heck are the Pogos? - jb
*David, man, you pay your guys?
*Today we lost power. A quick call to the coop service desk (on the cell phone - how could the old timers ever build a house without one?)confirmd the grid was down. Everyone started picking up trash and engaged in other forms of look, I'm earning my bucks until the radio came back on. Then it was back to the regular grind. Every now and then, I guess a radio can be more than just entertainment.
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Ed,
What do you get when you play a country / western song backwards?
Yer hous back, wife back, truck back . . . ;-)
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Hey! That Cajun Zydeco is good stuff (as long as I don't have to listen to it too often).
Rich Beckman
*Ben Is it the music that causes ADD (pretty sure I have it)? What about when Your not listenin to it? Lately I just been standin in front of the tool box starin. Pretty good handle on musical tastes. Ever notice plumbers don't have radios. What's with thar?
*Ben Is it the music that causes ADD (pretty sure I have it)? What about when Your not listenin to it? Lately I just been standin in front of the tool box starin. Pretty good handle on musical tastes. Ever notice plumbers don't have radios. What's with that?
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Music or for that matter G-man or Rush, should be kept in the background. If the compresser is running and you can still hear it, it's too loud. But on the other hand if you turn on one of those stations that play the same 60 songs over and over and over-- you need to burn in Dire Straits hell.
*Well, Keith, I'm 46 now, and I....uh.... what was I saying?... think that the music is not the cause of ADD.... I have noticed that it gets worse later in the week. Yesterday (Friday) I finally left the jobsite after I realized that I hadn't gotten anything done for an hour and a half.... Mondays and Tuesdays I tear 'em up, but by about Thursday I'm starting to drift mentally. Music is just another distraction for me that keeps me from focussing on the many things I have to pay attention to. As a working general contractor I'm supervising all subs and my own employees so it's a juggling act I have to spend a lot of mental energy on.... it's very different when I'm by myself doing some carpentry or some little project. I get a whole lot more done and could probably listen to some tunes then....You're right... plumbers never have radios.... hmmm.... plumbers are also all rich, aren't they?...
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Oh to be 46 again. Here is a little tip from the medicine cabinet that actually works. Phosfitidal cerine. Available at most health food stores. About $30 for a months supply. Hey give it a try just for the halibut as they say in the fish world.Does something to the neurotransmitters. And your'e right damn plumbers got all the money. Hell You always pee in a corner but without a carpenter there would'nt be a corner!
*Jeez Jimbo next thing comes show tunes.
*Ben, Skip - I remember Reader's Digest had a piece a few years ago about all the millionaires in our country (this was before the computer explosion) and it ended with a chart " How to spot the millionaire in your neighborhood" or something like that. Plumbing and HVAC contractors were both on the list. - jb
*Jimbo I've always found it strange that the mechanical trades seem to get more money than carpenters. One of My theoreis is that since most states have a system of liscensing for the mechanical trades but not for carpentry that it gives a greater weight to those trades. Imagine that You could get a card or liscense from Your state that designated You as a journey man carpenter or maybe a Master carenter. Right now if You fill up a room with carpeners There in no way to tell one's ability from another's.
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Jim: POGUES are an irish band with a real attitude. You
really ought to catch at least one song of theirs around
Christmastime.
Last week, myself and the two other carpenters on my current
job moved 12 pairs of 12', 5/8" drywall out of a bathroom
and down into a garage just so the plumber and electrician
(both billing about twice our rate) had more room to work.
The electrician is such a wimp he wouldn't start working
until we had a basement stair installed. Been on that house
since May, still no lights and we now have a total of two
outlets to pick from (2200 sq ft contemp.) He's worth
about...
MD
sor
*I'm firmly convinced that plumbers can charge what they do because you'd have to be crazy to be one.... and deal with the "stuff" that they have to..... Friday I was asked to try to get a sink working (at 4:00 in the afternoon) and found the trap arm rotted out from old coffee and whatever yuck it was in there.... I told the building engineer that "In my life I've been called a lot of things, but never "plumber"..... -BenView Image
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Crazy legs
The
b Pogues
ya great yahoo eedjit. Celtic Punk on speed.
Send the poor bugger a tape, Jon, your work ain't over.
*Patrick and Mad Dog,JimBob is going to get introduced to the Pogues this weekend. Locked in my new FORD pick up with the new Alpine CD I just had installed. May change his world. I'll make sure to play him "Fairytale of New York" for you MD, kinda get him in the Christmas spirit. His days of happily driving down the road in his V-6 Chevy van listening to Sly and the Family Stone are probably numbered. Any requests while I've got him locked in Patrick? Dont know if I have their latest but I've got most that could be had.JimBob, Pogues is short for, "Pogue Mahone", Gaelic for "kiss my ass". Music kind of comes in 3 basic flavors; mad, sad and funny. I think it's an Irish thing.JonCP.S. I consider them a gift from Canada as I first heard them on some kind of Canadian National radio show, the only station I could get in the mountains of interior B.C., while driving home from a dog trial up there. Never heard them on any station down here but I'm kind of isolated that way.
*Yeah, there is something to that licensing thing. But there is also a sense of urgency about getting your plumbing or heating working right that there usually isn't about an addition or remodel.And I agree with Ben too. They earn it. At least the guys in the field do. I wouldn't want to switch jobs with them. ('course, I can't really name anyone I'd care to switch with) - jb
*OK, I'll bite, where the heck is this "Gaeland" you guys keep referring to?
*JonAnything off thei If I Should Fall From Grace. . ."collection including the title track, seeing as how you'll already have it cued up. A buddy taped some of their others for me from cd but didn't write down any song titles for me to suggest.The radio you would be referring to is the CBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Two Radio networks, and two TV networks, with local programming mixed with national programming all across the country. It's one of the things that binds us together up here, and despite yearly funding cutbacks, continues to deliver a broad spectrum of high quality programming, with very eclectic music. Just about everybody that I know listens to it, most constantly.Mad, sad and funny pretty well sums up the Irish experience. . . My family has been here over 200 years but you never really lose it. I find myself dipping into it every day!-padreigh
*I find myself fishin in the same "Geezer Alternative" bins as you do - even worse, I find some of my favorite stuff is only in 2nd hand music stores - stuff like the satirical folk/rock stuff from the mid 60's, like the Chad Mitchell Trio and the Limelighters. Oh, well, the San Francisco Acid Rock stuff is still around, such as the Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin, so all is not lost...Interesting how we become "imprinted" on the music of our youth, and everything after that is just "noise". I guess our parents went through that with us and now we with ours...But the "Geezer Alternative" isn't all of it - I went to a "genuine antiques" auction the other day and much of the stuff was younger than I was! I mean, the toys I broke and threw away as a kid are now bringing serious money... I figure if I just hang onto my everyday tools a couple of more years, I will be able to clean up on antique tool market with them...
*so crazy legs do the other people go running for the radio when you start singing, like they do when I start singing on the jobsite? and I think skip is right this almost should be its own topic.
*okay this is how I ussually pick a station for a job. If I dont want to be bothered and need to get work done its the college station which plays crap that everybody hates and will ussually leave. If I am working with other folks like framers, or other subs it ussually gets put on to the classic rock station. If i'm working on a job site where the owner or architects are wandering around a lot I'll go for my personal favorite the Jazz station. If the owners are home all day the classical public broadcasting is whats on. For some reason my radio will not pick up any country stations, isn't that just a shame. Out of all of those the Jazz has gotten more raised eyebrows from the people who pay the checks, and ussually a comment about how nice the music is. I love me some Nina Freelon she has got a voice like silk. And of course the piece-du resistance is when I want to keep the wife and the pets out of the shop its Wagners 12 cd opera where the fat lady sings, Der ring das nibelungen(the one with ride of the valkeries).
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I dig those Valkyries. Da da' da daaa daa. Stan Kenton did a great arrangement.
In the shop...NPR.
Inside remodel...classical vocal and choral, sometimes jazz.
Building outside...I listen for birds...nothing makes my day like hearing White-throated Swifts or a Loggerhead Shrike overhead.
Country music...an oxymoron. Emphasis on moron.
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Had a helper plug a cd in during lunch break a few days ago. The cd was Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - "Trouble Is..."
Now I like blues, and one of my all time favorites is Stevie Ray Vaughn. This Kenny Wayne Shepherd is as good, if not better. On top of it all, this guy was 18 years old when he cut this album. He's unbelievable. If you get a chance to listen to it, check it out. Chances are you've heard quite a few songs from this album on the radio. He had something like 5 top ten songs from this album.
We don't usually get to listen to music on our jobs. We spend a lot of time indoors with the customer in close proximity. I usually don't have a helper either, but sometimes I need the extra hand. Anyway, I take it a lot of you don't care much for country music. I don't either, and I get ribbed about it a lot. A whole lot of famous country musicians are from my area (George Jones, Tex Ritter, Mark Chestnutt, and many others). I don't listen to country, so I don't really know who all these people are. We also have a lot of rock and roll legends from here too - like Janis Joplin, ZZ-Top, Big Bopper, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Podunk, and a few more.
James DuHamel
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(official anarchist contingent spokesperson)
1. Getting to the site or working alone or without much brainwork--80's 90's hardcore. Good also for getting out of bed in Feb. (see "Winter anyone?"). Inquire for free tape via Clay!
2. Brainwork or feeling bad about how much money you're losing? NPR (unless it's polish-based Nazi-germany stuff, or All Things Considered, then switch to said hardcore tape).
3. Inner-city? Search for (on weekends- "Return to Forever" nationally syndicated) or AM based Motown stuff--easy to find. Very subtle version of said tape--resistence, etc..
4. Other-There are plenty of good feelin' oldies stations out there that defy the insipid trend of Beach Boys and bad Elton John (Yeah, I like 'em both too, but, politically, both together, doth for a bad station make). They are usually on AM and cater to the silvermaned crowd (and might be generally age-ist against the "alternative" scene). Good sign, you get Frank (you know who I mean) right after "Beans in my Ears." There is not a client out there who could complain about this kind of station, no matter how white.
5. And if you're in the Jersey Area, We are truely blessed with a college station out of the Oranges that is all metal, with days contributed to Slayer. If you don't know Slayer, then view the next metal kid/mohawk you see as the new educated (somewhat) labor movement (well,er, me).
Clay Of New Jersey
(the rumors are true, this state sucks)
*Oh yeah also,6. If your in a southern area that has enough sense to play Hank Sr., never switch. Or else get the friggin' CD.ClayPs.-As for not being able to find tapes, have you had trouble finding vinyl? The Compact Disk industry has made it a point to stamp out any makes of vinyl and it seems now, tape format. There are many bands out there today that only press in vinyl, as a form of protest. It only takes something like $0.65 to press a CD. Blah blah, I'll do some research and get back later with stats.
*As we said in "Seminar of Irish Literature"; He dies, She dies, Nobody gets laid, Everybody gets drunk, And a good time was had by all. Which is exactly what happens in Russian lit too, but they never have any fun - makes me glad I'm mongrel celt.
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While sitting in the Periodontist's office the other day waiting to get my gums cut (sheesh), I was reading a letter in Popular Mechanics from an irate reader who was objecting to the new Dewalt charger / radio. Seems she didn't like the idea of Blaring jobsite "noise" and wanted to return to the "good old days" of "quiet craftsmen" so her "naps wouldn't be disturbed"???
This got me thinking - I play classical when working alone (Organ, Pedal Harpsichord or trio sonatas), but let the guys play what ever they want, (Rock / Country).
I've never had a complaint yet - how about you?