Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth,
Full of beauty, full of love and health.
-Joe Hill
Fellow Workers, sit back and relax. It’s time to honor the memory of Joe Hill by enjoying the songs that he left to us. For the fourth day, WE NEVER FORGET, The Labor Martyrs Project, features FW Hill’s musical and lyrical legacy. We are presenting his songs in the order in which they were first published in the Little Red Songbooks of the Industrial Workers of the World. Today we offer Part 4 of this series.
Published in the Little Red Songbooks of 1914 & 1916
The Eighth Edition of the Little Red Songbook, published in Cleveland and dated December, 1914, was dedicated as the “Joe Hill Edition.” There were no new Joe Hill song’s in that edition, but there was a poem headed by a drawing of a wooden shoe entitled “The Rebel’s Toast.” The poem appears under the song “Liberty Forever,” but Green believes that the two are not related and states that there is no evidence to indicate that Joe Hill intended for the poem to be sung.
“The Rebel’s Toast” appeared on page 52:
Performed by John McCutcheon (also Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay)
If Freedom’s road seems rough and hard,
And strewn with rocks and thorns,
Then put your wooden shoes on, pard,
And you won’t hurt your corns.
To organize and teach, no doubt,
Is very good — that’s true,
But still we can’t succeed without
The Good Old Wooden Shoe.
Source for poem:
http://www.folkarchive.de/rebtoast.html
The Ninth Edition of the Little Red Songbook was published in Cleveland in March of 1916 and was dedicated as the “Joe Hill Memorial Edition.” Four new songs, Joe Hill’s Last Will, and Joe Hill’s Farewell Message were featured therein, including:
“Workers of the World, Awaken,”
-words and music by Joe Hill, on pages 1-2.
Note: I love this performance, if anyone knows who the performer is, please let me know!
Workers of the world, awaken!
Break your chains. demand your rights.
AII the wealth you make is taken
By exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission
From your cradles to your graves?
ls the height of your ambition
To be good and willing slaves?
CHORUS:
Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of every nation.
In One Union grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying,
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
‘Tis the final stand.
If the workers take a notion,
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains.
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.
Join the union, fellow workers,
Men and women, side by side;
We will crush the greedy shirkers
Like a sweeping, surging tide;
For united we are standing,
But divided we will fall;
Let this be our understanding —
“All for one and one for all.”
Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might;
Take the wealth that you are making,
It belongs to you by right.
No one will for bread be crying,
We’ll have freedom, love and health.
When the grand red flag is flying
In the Workers’ Commonwealth.
For Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/workers_of_the_world_awaken/
“Ta-Ra-Ra Boom De-Ay” on pages 17-18.
Performed by Lucas Stark
(see also above by John McCutcheon.)
I had a job once threshing wheat:
Worked sixteen hours with hands and feet.
And when the moon was shining bright,
They kept me working all the night.
One moon-lit night, I hate to tell,
I “accident’lly” slipped and fell.
My pitchfork went right in-between
Some cog wheels of that thresh machine.
Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way.
And wheels and bolts and hay
Went flyin’ every way.
That stingy rube said, “Well,
A thousand gone to hell.”
But I did sleep that night:
I needed it all right.
Next day that stingy rube did say,
“I’ll bring my eggs to town today.
You, grease my wagon up, you mutt!
And don’t forget to screw the nut!”
I greased his wagon all right, but
I plumb “forgot” to screw the nut.
And when he started on that trip,
The wheel slipped off and broke his hip!
Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way.
That rube was sure a sight
And mad enough to fight.
His whiskers and his legs
Were full of scrambled eggs.
I told him, “That’s too bad.
I’m feeling very sad.”
And then that farmer said, “You turk!
I bet you are an I-Won’t-Work!”
He paid me off right there, by gum;
So I went home and told my chum.
Next day, when threshing did commence,
My chum was Johnny-on-the-fence.
And ‘pon my word, that “awkward” lad,
He “dropped” his pitchfork like I had.
Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way.
And part of that machine
Hit Reuben in the bean.
He cried, “Oh, me, oh, my!
I nearly lost my eye!”
My partner said, “You’re right.
It’s bedtime now. Goodnight!”
But still that rube was pretty wise:
These things did open up his eyes.
He said, “There must be something wrong;
I think I work my men too long.”
He cut the hours and raised the pay:
Gave ham and egg for every day;
Now gets his men from union hall;
And, has no “accidents” as well.
Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!
That rube is feeling gay.
He learned his lesson quick:
Just through three simple tricks.
For fixing rotten jobs
And fixing greedy slobs,
This is the only way!
Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay!
For Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/ta_ra_ra_boom_de_ay/
“Don’t Take My Papa Away From Me,” with words and music by Joe Hill, on page 28.
Sadly, I could find no performance of this song online, but see below for audio file of the tune which can be easily downloaded.
A little girl with her father stayed
In an old cabin ‘cross the sea.
Her mother dear in the cold grave lay:
With her father, she’d always be.
But then one day, the Great War broke out,
And the father was told to go.
The little girl pleaded her father she needed;
She begged, cried, and pleaded so.
“Don’t take my papa away from me;
Don’t leave me here all alone.
He has cared for me so tenderly
Ever since mother has gone.
Nobody ever like him can be;
No one can so with me play.
Don’t take my father away from me;
Please don’t take papa away.”
Her tender pleadings were all in vain,
And her father went to the war.
He’ll never kiss her goodnight again
For he fell ‘mid the cannons’ roar.
A greater soldier was never born,
But his brave heart was pierced one day.
And as he was dying, he heard someone crying:
A girl’s voice / from far away:
“Don’t take my papa away from me;
Don’t leave me here all alone.
He has cared for me so tenderly
Ever since mother has gone.
Nobody ever like him can be;
No one can so with me play.
Don’t take my father away from me;
Please don’t take papa away.”
For Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/dont_take_my_papa_away_from_me/
“The Rebel Girl,” words and music by Joe Hill, on page 35.
Performed by Alyeah Hansen
There are women of many descriptions
In this cruel world, as everyone knows.
Some are living in beautiful mansions
And are wearing the finest of clothes.
There’s the blue-blooded queen or the princess,
Who have charms made of diamonds and pearls.
But the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the rebel girl.
She’s a rebel girl, a rebel girl.
She’s working class: the strength of this world.
From Maine to Georgia, you’ll see
Her fighting for you and for me.
Yes, she’s there by your side
With her courage and pride.
She’s unequalled anywhere.
And I’m proud to fight for freedom
With the rebel girl.
Though her hands may be hardened from labor
And her dress may not be very fine,
There’s a heart in her bosom that’s beating
Always true to her class and her kind.
And the bosses know that they can’t change her.
She’d die to defend the workers’ world.
Yes, the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the rebel girl.
She’s a rebel girl, a rebel girl.
She’s working class: the strength of this world.
From Maine to Georgia, you’ll see
Her fighting for you and for me.
Yes, she’s there by your side
With her courage and pride.
She’s unequalled anywhere.
And I’m proud to fight for freedom
With the rebel girl.
For Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/the_rebel_girl/
“Joe Hill’s Last Will” (also farewell message) on page 56.
Performed as a song by John McCutcheon
Last Will performed as a poem by Utah Phillips, includes farewell message.
My Last Will
My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide;
My kin don’t need to fuss and moan:
“Moss does not cling to rolling stone.”
My body? Ah! If I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will:
Good luck to all of you.
For Poem/Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/joe_hills_last_will/
First Appeared in Little Red Songbook, 25th Edition, 1933
“I’t a Long Way down to the Soupline” on page 28.
Performed by Lucas Stark
Bill Brown was just a working man
Like others of his kind.
He lost his job and tramped the streets
When work was hard to find.
The landlord put him on the stem;
The bankers kept his dough.
And Bill heard everybody sing
No matter where he’d go:
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
And the soup is thin, I know.
Goodbye good old pork chops.
Farewell beefsteak rare.
It’s a long, long way down to the soup line,
But my soup is there!
So, Bill and sixteen million folk
Responded to the call
To force the hours of labor down
And thus make jobs for all.
They picketed the industries
And won the four-hour day
And organized a gen’ral strike
So they won’t have to say:
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
And the soup is thin, I know.
Goodbye good old pork chops.
Farewell beefsteak rare.
It’s a long, long way down to the soup line,
But my soup is there!
The workers own the fact’ries now
Where jobs were once destroyed
By big machines that filled the world
With hungry unemployed.
They all own homes; they’re living well;
They’re happy, free, and strong.
But, millionaires wear overalls
And sing this little song:
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way down to the soup line.
And the soup is thin, I know.
Goodbye good old pork chops.
Farewell beefsteak rare.
It’s a long, long way down to the soup line,
But my soup is there!
For Lyrics and links to sheet music and karaoke music:
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/posts/its_a_long_way_down_to_the_soup_line/
Joe Hill to Sam Murray on writing the Soupline Song:
SOURCES
Joe Hill
-by Gibbs M. Smith
Gibbs Smith, Sep 1, 2009
https://books.google.com/books?id=wFwsHQVuHVUC
The Big Red Songbook
-ed by Archie Green, David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont
Charles H. Kerr, 2007
https://books.google.com/books?id=aQHaAAAAMAAJ
IMAGES
Joe Hill, Self-Portrait at San Pedro Sailors Mission
http://joehill2015.org/joe-hill/joe-hill-songs/there-is-power-in-a-union/
The Wooden Shoe
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chambers_1908_Sabot.png
Workers of the World Awaken, 1915
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tamiment/3019948169/in/photostream/
Joe Hill, Don’t Take My Papa Away, 1915
http://www.folkarchive.de/donttake.html
The Rebel Girl by Joe Hill, 1915
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4f69-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Joe Hill Memorial Edition of Little Red Songbook, 1916
(Follow links to page 56.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill
Hill’s Letter to Murray of Dec 1914 with “IWW is Coming”
From: The Letters of Joe Hill
-ed by Philip S Foner
Oak Publications, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=1tHfAAAAMAAJ
And: http://libcom.org/library/100-years-ago-philadelphia-dockers-strike-local-8-iww-mouvement-communiste-kolektivn%C4%9B-pr
See also:
This is a must-have book!
Joe Hill: The IWW & The Making Of
A Revolutionary Working Class Counterculture
by Franklin Rosemont
PM Press, Dec 15, 2015
https://books.google.com/books?id=WIjiCgAAQBAJ
Political Folk Music Dot Org
http://politicalfolkmusic.org/wordpress/
Joe Hill’s Songs at Joe Hill 2015 dot org
http://joehill2015.org/joe-hill/joe-hill-songs/
Joe Hill’s Music, The Defiant Power of Song
http://local.sltrib.com/charts/joehill/music.html
The Songs of Joe Hill
http://www.folkarchive.de/hill.html