My Hands Ain't Worth a Damn

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
These knuckles have been busted, these fingers have been burned
Got a lifetime of hard lessons that I've had to slowly learn
I can read a piece of timber, I can feel it in the grain
I can listen to an engine and I can diagnose the pain
This was my father's trade, and his father's before him
A sacred kind of knowledge from the root up to the stem.

[Chorus]
But there's a cold blue light a-hummin' in the corner of the shop
A perfect, patient monster that ain't never gonna stop
It can do my job in minutes, it don't get tired, it don't complain
And it makes a man start thinkin' in the pourin', acid rain
That these callouses and scars I've earned don't fit into the plan
'Cause in this brave new world, my hands ain't worth a damn.

[Verse 2]
It cuts a perfect straight line, never wavers, never shakes
It don't have a soul to pour into the beautiful mistakes
The little marks of character that say a man was here
Now it's all just flawless copies, year after flawless year
They say it's more efficient, say it's the only way to grow
But there's a hundred years of know-how that machine will never know.

[Chorus]
But there's a cold blue light a-hummin' in the corner of the shop
A perfect, patient monster that ain't never gonna stop
It can do my job in minutes, it don't get tired, it don't complain
And it makes a man start thinkin' in the pourin', acid rain
That these callouses and scars I've earned don't fit into the plan
'Cause in this brave new world, my hands ain't worth a damn.

[Bridge]
They say a man is what he builds, what he leaves when he is gone
So what the hell am I now, at the breaking of the dawn?
Just an echo of a hammer, a ghost in overalls
Waiting for the silence when that final whistle calls.

[Guitar Solo]

[Chorus]
And that cold blue light is hummin' in the corner of the shop!
A perfect, patient monster that ain't never gonna stop!
It can do my job in minutes, it don't get tired, it don't complain!
And it makes a man start thinkin' in this pourin', acid rain!
That these callouses and scars I've earned don't fit in their new plan!
'Cause in this brave new world, my hands ain't worth a damn.

[Outro]
No, they ain't worth a damn...
These hands...
Ain't worth a damn...