In Tall Buildings

A song written by John Hartford and first released on his 1976 Flying Fish album Nobody Knows What You Do, though an earlier version was recorded in 1971 for the unreleased RCA album Radio John. The lyric follows a narrator across the stages of a working life — boyhood, suit and short haircut, daily commute, retirement — set against the refrain about going to work in tall buildings. It has become one of Hartford’s most-covered songs outside “Gentle on My Mind,” with notable readings by Gillian Welch, Billy Strings, and Molly Tuttle.John Hartford (1937–2001) was a Missouri-raised banjoist, fiddler, and songwriter who shaped progressive bluegrass through Aereo-Plain (1971) and his later solo steamboat-themed work; he was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2010.