Labor Day is the last long weekend before summer quietly packs up and leaves, and it deserves better than whatever your phone shuffles into. The holiday is built around two things rock music has never run out of material for, which is working hard and then aggressively refusing to work at all. So here are the best rock songs for Labor Day weekend, sorted roughly by what you'll actually be doing.
Rock Songs About Hard Work
Bruce Springsteen is the obvious starting point, and I'd go with "Working on the Highway" over "Born in the U.S.A." purely because half the country still thinks that second one is a flag-waving singalong and it very much isn't. Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" is almost too on the nose, given it spent a decade selling pickup trucks, but the riff still hits and the sentiment fits the day. Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" is the most karaoke-proof song ever written, in that nobody has ever sung it correctly and nobody has ever cared. And if you want the entire backyard shouting at once, Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" is the crossover pick that works on absolutely everyone, guitarist or not.
Classic Rock Road Trip Songs
If your weekend involves a car and more highway than you planned for, this is the section that matters. Van Halen's "Panama" is the best driving song ever recorded by a wide margin, and I'll take arguments on that but I won't lose them. Tom Petty's "American Girl" opens with one of those jangly figures that makes a rental car feel like a convertible, and it never overstays its welcome. The Eagles' "Take It Easy" is what you put on when someone in the passenger seat is stressed about traffic. Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" gets you through the last hour, and its main riff is one of those guitar tones worth studying if you've never tried to nail it yourself.
Labor Day Cookout Music
Cookout rock has one job, which is being loud enough to hear over a grill and familiar enough that nobody asks what it is. AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" is the correct opener because it sets a tone immediately and gives everyone permission to stop being polite. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" will get more people singing than anything else on this list, regardless of where they're from. Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is legally required at some point in the evening. And ZZ Top's "La Grange" carries the whole middle stretch on the strength of one filthy, unhurried riff, which is the kind of thing that shows up in other people's records for decades afterward.
Modern Rock That Earns Its Spot
Nobody wants a playlist that stops in 1985. Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune" slots between the older stuff without anyone noticing the jump. The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" is built on a fuzzy stomp that sounds enormous outdoors. Rival Sons' "Do Your Worst" is the heaviest thing here and works best around the point in the night where the crowd thins out and the volume goes up. Dirty Honey's "When I'm Gone" closes it out with the kind of swagger that makes people want to go home and pick up a guitar, which is honestly the goal. If that's you, we've collected more tracks worth learning elsewhere on the blog.
Learn Them Before Next Weekend
The problem with a list like this is that it makes you want to play all of it, and getting sixteen different tones sorted usually kills the mood before you start. That's the part REACTOR by Positive Grid handles well. Describe the sound you're after in plain words, or record the song itself and let the amp build a matching guitar tone from it, and you're playing instead of tweaking. It's an intelligent combo amp with the projection to hold its own in a room with a full band, and it stays sounding like itself when you pull the volume down for the neighbors afterward. Somebody has probably already built the tone you want and shared it on ToneCloud, so start there before you build anything from scratch.
Quick Reference: Best Rock Songs for Labor Day Weekend
Rock songs about hard work:
- Bruce Springsteen, "Working on the Highway"
- Bob Seger, "Like a Rock"
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "Takin' Care of Business"
- Dolly Parton, "9 to 5"
Classic rock road trip songs:
- Van Halen, "Panama"
- Tom Petty, "American Girl"
- Eagles, "Take It Easy"
- Steve Miller Band, "Jet Airliner"
Labor Day cookout music:
- AC/DC, "Highway to Hell"
- Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Sweet Home Alabama"
- Journey, "Don't Stop Believin'"
- ZZ Top, "La Grange"
Modern rock picks:
- Greta Van Fleet, "Highway Tune"
- The Black Keys, "Lonely Boy"
- Rival Sons, "Do Your Worst"
- Dirty Honey, "When I'm Gone"
Three Ways to Get These Guitar Tones Fast
- Search the artist or song on ToneCloud and download a tone another player has already shared.
- Describe the sound in your own words and let REACTOR build the signal chain for it.
- Record or upload the track itself and let the amp match the tone from the source.