Song of the Day 9/8: Gary U.S. Bonds, “Out of Work”

For 11.5 million Americans, Labor Day wasn’t a day off — they have no job to go back to. Bruce Springsteen wrote this song for Bonds during the singer’s early-80s comeback, which corresponded with the Reagan Recession. Bonds hadn’t had a hit since 1962 until he hooked up with Springsteen in 1981, when his album “Dedication,” produced by Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt, returned him to the charts. “Out of Work,” the single from their second LP collaboration, “On the Line,” reached No. 21 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1982.

Back in March, when Covid cabin fever started setting in, Bonds wrote some new lyrics for the song and performed it — acoustically from his house, of course — for the coronavirus era.