Labor day music thread
By DougJ, Head of Infidelity September 5th, 2011
There are a lot of great labor-themed songs—Navigator, I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night, Plenty Tough, Union Made, and John Henry. This is my favorite, I first heard it when I saw Harlan County USA in 1988, which I remember like it was yesterday.
I’ll put up Navigator too.
What are your favorites?
Posted in Fuck The Middle-Class, Music
Umm, no shout out to Jimmie Rodgers and Mule Skinner Blues? Tragic overlook, Big Baby DougJ.
September 5th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
September 5th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
DougJ—It’s Union MAID.
ETA: I don’t have a particular labor-themed song but I like almost anything sung by Pete Seeger.
September 5th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Two Good Men A Long Time Gone, by Woody Guthrie
September 5th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Coal Tattooo (both Judy Collins and Kingston Trio versions). Pastures of Plenty. Deportees.
September 5th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Is Take This Job and Shove It a labor song?
September 5th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Avvanti populo a la riscossa
Bandiera rossa, bandiera rossa
Avanti popolo, alla riscossa,
Bandiera rossa trionferà!
Best part of Matewan, when the scabs throw down their shovels, and the bosses realize just whom they hired to strikebreak.
Viva lo sciopero!
September 5th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
What pixelpusher said. Also, “Workin’ in a coal mine, goin’ down down down” is catchy.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
What pixelpusher said. Also, “Workin’ in a coal mine, goin’ down down down” is catchy.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Merle Haggard – Hungry Eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQf8i2TzHg
September 5th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, and “Nine to Five,” of course!
September 5th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
@Bruce S:
Not to be confused with Eric Carmen’s song of the same name
September 5th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
ima lissenin to Obama in detroit.
Rise together.
my arms are in the crowd scene.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Billy Bragg does a bracing “Which Side Are You On?” I should dip back into his back catalogue sometime soon.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
“Bread and Roses.”
Mimi Fariña and Joanie Baez, a capella.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
If I were a US history teacher, I don’t think I could keep a job.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Whole buncha Springsteen would fit… The River (whole damn album), Youngstown, Atlantic City, etc.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
What about Worker’s Song by Dropkick Murphys-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k
September 5th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
The greatest LABOR song of all time?
“Having My Baby.”
Let the booing ensue…
September 5th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Any version of John Henry.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Athens GA labour:
Pylon - Working is no Problem
REM - Finest Worksong
OK, neither one really advances the movement, but fun. And I just fucking love Pylon.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Hazel Dickens – Fire in the Hole – It’s on the soundtrack of Matewan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiGPbHnpQks
September 5th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
@pixelpusher: Sixteen Tons
Pretty cheerful style for a song about oppressed laborers, but a great song nevertheless.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
The people’s flag is palest pink,
It’s not as red as you might think…
September 5th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Its Union Maid, best cover to date is by Old Crow Medicine Show
September 5th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
OT, but bwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaa
it finally happened: ABL “time outed” Cornered Stone.
that sweet little voice has been SILENCED.
heeheeheeeheeeeheeeee
September 5th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I’m hearing that POTUS gave a pretty good speech in Detroit, introduced by Queen of Soul and hometown Detroit girl Aretha Franklin.
But if a tree falls in a forest…?
Anyone else see or hear it?
September 5th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
@BBA: The anthem of the Millbank Tendency faction.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
@Wannabe Speechwriter: Good choice.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
@lamh34: Not a single mention of the public option, however.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Does Stan Ridgeway’s I Wanna Be a Boss count?
If not his 16 Tons is haunting, if a bit long.
Also:
Primus Those Damn Blue Collar Tweekers
Oingo Boingo Wild Sex (in the working class)
XTC Love on a Farm Boy’s Wages
Timbuk3 Down in the Mine
Rush Working Man
Tom Waits Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song)
Men They Couldn’t Hang: Rain, Steam, and Speed and Iron Masters.
I’m really dating myself here.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Big John
September 5th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
#25 Jeezus – do you have to drag that boring shit over into an unrelated thread? Are you 12 years old?
Here’s Springsteen’s “Factory”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hd7803hSxA
And Ray Davies’ take –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jGkdTA2z8U
September 5th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
@eemom: He’s gonna send about ten angry e-mails to JC a day, then when the ban is lifted will be even more argumentative than before. I’ll make popcorn.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Try “Eat The Rich,” by Aerosmith.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
I think we should celebrate our teamsters and this risks they take
September 5th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Also One’s on the Way written by Shel Silverstein and made popular by Loretta Lynn is an awesome song about the work of a housewife in the age of women’s liberation.
So it is kind of a labor song AND a labor song.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
@Kane:
most certainly. I love the rap version of that at the end of Office Space.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Working Class Hero – John Lennon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU
September 5th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@lamh34:
September 5th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
@adolphus:
NRBQ’s Whistle While You Work goes along with that nicely.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
@Bruce S:
oh GFY, you self-important clown.
Pompous ass.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
I’d second the mention of Joe Hill.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
eemom – You’re an idiot. It’s that simple.
Go troll another thread where somebody gives a shit…
September 5th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
I like Union Maid by Arlo & Pete Seeger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuK4m3UzRk
September 5th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Billy Bragg- The world turned upside down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stmiyeLsErw
September 5th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZHPjowC28
September 5th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Lee Dorsey Working In The Coal Mine
September 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
@Bruce S:
You’re overreacting. If you don’t care for eemom’s comment, you need only ignore it.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
I’m more of a movie person, so I’ll recommend Salt of the Earth for your Labor Day viewing.
“The formula! The formula! The formula!”
September 5th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
@Bruce S:
make me.
It ain’t your blog.
I may be OT in this thread, but you are a pompous ass in ALL threads.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
#50 – “Make me” ????
You really ARE 12 years old? I just thought you were an idiot on ALL threads. Now go fuck yourself, fool.
On point – Here’s a cool Maggies Farm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyZS0aCIYIk
September 5th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
the work song
(NSFW)
September 5th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
@Yutsano:
ain’t it delicious though? Mr. Too Cool For School reduced to groveling for re-entry at the feet of that same John Cole whom he routinely mocks and ridicules.
bwaaahaaahaaahaaahaaaa. Again.
Where is mon General? I must share this moment with him.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
@eemom:
@Bruce S:
Oh for fuck’s sake, if I have to pull this car over, you both will be sorry.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
FTFY. In both senses.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
@Bruce S:
actually I am 10.
And I told you to GFY FIRST.
Have I mentioned you are still a pompous ass?
September 5th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Great thread, DougJ. I’m with you on “Which Side Are You On?” Love it.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
eemom – do everyone a favor and try to take me on in one of those shitty ABL threads, where the morons at least have a chance to impress the crowd…you’ve worn out any vestige of a welcome on this one.
More Merle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThRAyJDqU_s
September 5th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
@Omnes Omnibus, @Yutsano: Y’know, this is awfully reminiscent of a backseat fight between my grandkids when they were 7 and 9.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
@Bruce S:
That statement seems to cut both ways.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
@SBJules:
I just saw Arlo perform Saturday night at the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington. He told a funny story about how the song came to be, with Woody and Pete being approached by the head of a ladies auxiliary complaining that all the union songs were about the men and nothing about the ladies auxiliary. After they wrote and performed Union Maid, the same lady came up to them again complaining they didn’t write about the ladies auxiliary, and then Arlo sang the song that Woody made up for her right on the spot. Then he led us on a sing along of This Land Is Your Land, and a couple of other Pete Seeger songs. It was pretty great.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
I’ll take Rage’s version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
@adolphus: Wow, haven’t seen the name “Men They Couldn’t Hang” in 20 years! I was happily reminiscing until you said you were dating yourself. I must be downright superannuated.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
@eemom: I’d personally much rather have CornerStone than FourLoko_chan.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
#60 – when this moron manages to post one solitary thing on this thread that isn’t totally irrelevant and ridiculous, you might end up with some shred of a point. I won’t hold my breath.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
@BBA: One thing has always annoyed me about that song and the type of person who might sing it.
We’ll change the country bit by bit
so nobody will notice it
Is supposed to be a shot at how those undermining the principles of the party will eventually get everything they want. Which is a valid thing to complain about. Except that it’s usually sung by the type of people who in the US would say “public option or nothing!”.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
@suzanne: When he’s all PUMA pouty I just laugh. When he gets personally insulting for no reason I get edgy. JMHO.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Dionne Warwick Do You Know The Way To San Jose
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas
September 5th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
@Cat Lady:
Proto-firebagger apparently, it occurs to me.
September 5th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
@Bruce S:
see nos. 4, 31 and 37, reading-challenged clown.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
@Yutsano: He can spell, though. And talk about more than one thing. So I can forgive.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Paul Robeson’s version of “Joe Hill”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes
Rolling Stones “Salt of the Earth”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2bxix3vFYM
September 5th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
@suzanne:
but he is vicious. The child is not.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
@Bruce S:
You mean like her comments at 31 and 37 before you called her out on the other comment?
Like I said, both ways. :/
September 5th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
@Yutsano: Hours will go by when it’s possible to have a conversation with him, and it might be pointed, but it’ll at least be on topic and represent an exchange of actual opinions. Then a moment will come, unexpectedly, where he seems to stop having fun entirely and instead wants to throw down with whoever happens to be around.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
There is also John Mellencamp’s Rain On The Scarecrow, though I guess technically farm is a different category from labor.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
As well as many already listed, my faves are anything by Matthew Grimm, but especially “Honea Path” and “One Big Union”. As well, “Boom Gone to Bust” by James Keelaghan gets a spin today.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
The Re4placements Waitress In The Sky
September 5th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
eemom – you’re right at #70. I’m mortified…but you’ve still managed to fuck up the thread with horseshit that no sane person could possibly give a shit about. No apologies for calling you out. And definitely do your best to counter my “pompous ass” or “clown” comments in suitable circumstances. I look forward to it.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
@eemom: Eh. Doesn’t bother me so much. Everyone’s got their buttons to push, I suppose.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
@Wannabe Speechwriter: Great choice! They also do a killer version of “Which side are you on”.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Dead End Street and Get Back In Line by the Kinks
September 5th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
@eemom:
Depends on what kind of farmer you’re talking about, I guess. If the farmer works the land himself, I’d say he counts as working class.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
@Bruce S:
Still?
It appeals to my sense of schadenfreude…And I’ve got you to thank for it: I missed her comment until you flamed her over it.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
@Amir Khalid: Under US labor law, farm workers are always in a separate category.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
“A Miner’s Life” by the great Irish-American band Solas.
http://new.music.yahoo.com/sol.....2;34383680
Also, “Union Man” by Blue Highway. And Patty Loveless’ version of “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” never fails to send chills up my spine.
I’m two generations removed from one of those mill towns in Upstate New York that doesn’t have any mills any more. There but for the grace of God, and some scholarship money that my old man got, go I.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
As a bolshie, I don’t like it watered down: so, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCFibtD3H_k
September 5th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
@Bruce S:
as is evidenced by the fact that at least three other people have commented on the merits of such “horseshit.”
hey Yutsy, Suzanne and Flip—did you know yer not SANE?
Counter as I may, you will still be a pompous ass.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
How bout union man—a Cate Bros version.
And a course Buffy Sainte Marie doing her awesome lefty stuff.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Blue Sky Mine.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ah, but would that legal classification place farm workers — or for that matter, small farmers — outside the cohort we call “the working class”? I think not.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
@Bruce S:
You’re being an idiot here. Corner Stone got what he’s had coming to him for a very long time. Even if you disagree, you lost when you took the bait. So stow it.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
@Amir Khalid: No, but it is, I think, the reason for the differentiation noted above.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
@Amir Khalid:
Rain on the Scarecrow is about hard-working farmers being dispossessed of their land. It’s an intense song. Here’s a live version.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
@Amir Khalid:
Well, small farmers have benefited from price supports, government-guaranteed loans, and a variety of other sorts of welfare for a very long time, so it’s a little ambiguous.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
First time I’ve seen the financial press smack a republican directly (even if they are gentle, they’re direct):
Social Security Is No Ponzi Scheme.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
.
.
Favorite Labor Day song? Obviously, I vote with c u n d gulag – “(You’re) Having My Baby” by Paul Anka.
.
.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
@PeakVT: Peter Garrett is one odd looking and odd dancing dude. Just sayin’.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning.
And the sun goes down about three in the day.
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you’re drinkin.’
And you spend your life thinkin’ ‘bout how to get away.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3IrnNAweM0
September 5th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
@barath: Good lord, the comments on that are ignorant and appalling.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Animals, We Gotta Get Out of This Place
Don Henley, Sunset Grill
September 5th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hmm…I don’t see a comments section. (Maybe it’s adblock plus that’s blocking them.) Anyway, it’s for the best…unmoderated newspaper comment sections are usually troll breeding grounds.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: True, but it hasn’t hurt his career.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
@PeakVT: And Aussie friend once told me that Garrett has three dance moves, all involving his arm movements: 1) the scissors (self-explanatory), 2) the box (wherein his hands alternately indicate the top and sides of a box), and 3) the spastic (also self-explanatory).
September 5th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Get Back In The Line
September 5th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: Greatest concert experience ever: I had a front row seat for the Oils in Connecticut in, I think, 1990.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Unless I missed it…the Stones, “Rip this Joint”
September 5th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
omg, Telegraph Road! An absolute masterpiece of both lyrics and music.
I used to like to go to work
but they shut it down
I got a right to go to work
but there’s no work here to be found
And they say we’re gonna have to pay what’s owed
We’re gonna have to reap from some seed that’s been sowed
..............
But believe in me baby and I’ll take you away
from out of this darkness and into the day
from these rivers of headlights, these rivers of rain
from the anger that lives in the streets with these names
‘cause I’ve run every red light on memory lane
I’ve seen desperation explode into flames
and I don’t wanna see it again
From all of these signs saying sorry but we’re closed
all the way down the telegraph road.
.....and the guitar run that follows is INCREDIBLE.
September 5th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Most of the Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger catalogs. Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad” is also good.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Industrial Disease.
Yeah, now the work force is disgusted down tools and walks
Innocence is injured, experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
That these are classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze
On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse
Philosophy is useless, theology is worse
History boils over, there’s an Economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean industrial disease
September 5th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Getting my oil change and CNN has the conservatard hackfest on. Newt is up and babbling talking points like no end. Tax cuts, deregulation, throw out the Messicans, and drill baby drill. And no plans to pay for any of it.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Harlan Man – Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
Last verse:
I’m a union man
Just like my daddy and all my kin
I’ll take a union stand
No matter what the company said
I’ve got me two good hands
Just as long as I’m able I won’t give in
Cause I’m a Harlan man
Be a coal minin’ mother tell the day I’m dead
September 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Though not an explicit labor anthem, Bill Wither’s Lean On Me was based on his childhood in a coal mining company town in West Virginia.
@Omnes Omnibus:
The Austrian Schoolers have always made up for their numerical inferiority by adding more decibels and mendacity to their already existing panoply of obnoxium ever since the Keynesians began kicking their ass in the European academies in the 1930s and 40s.
The signature Austrian School text of the 20th century, cited by more Austrian Schoolers than virtually any other, posited that Great Britain would turn into a fascist dictatorship because of the NHS and the National Insurance Act (their version of our original Social Security Act). That Clement Attlee, one of the most milquetoast and deferential politicians ever to hold the Prime Ministership, was some kind of ne’er-do-well, ersatz Adolf Hitler. And Ludwig von Mises, the man from whom Mises.org derives its name, is now mostly famous among economists for insisting that Milton Friendman was, in fact, a communist.
They’re irrelevance has made them crazy.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Then there’s this...Relating to eemom’s controversial un-topic.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yes. Unabashedly modern.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
I was born and raised at the mouth of the Hazard Holler
Where the coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row of all empties
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
Jeanie Richie
September 5th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Someone mentioned Billy Bragg earlier, but not There is Power in the Union.
Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who’ll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?
Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union
September 5th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: Why would someone spend time analyzing how the members of Midnight Oil dance?
September 5th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
If you consider white collar profit drone work to be labor, Corporation Enema by Royal Crescent Mob.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Ron Paul is up next. Hoo boy is he going for the crazy. I’ve counted three dogwhistles so far.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Was trying to think of a working man’s reggae song
Small Axe
September 5th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Hmm. Combined with burnspbesq’s Patti Lovelace song above, I’m beginning to wonder if half of the labor/union songs written came from Harlan, KY.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
So why do we do it? Here’s why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ure=colike
September 5th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Hazard is in Perry County
September 5th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: are there any songs about the Triangle Factory Fire?
September 5th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
The whole 25th Anniversary Revue album of the 1937 Broadway show Pins and Needles, including:
“Sing Me A Song With Social Significance”
“Doing The Reactionary”
“One Big Union For Two”
“It’s Better With A Union Man”
“Not Cricket To Picket”
“Back To Work”
“Chain Store Daisy”
Pins and Needles was an ILGWU production and is purportedly “the only hit ever produced by a labor union, and the only time when a group of unknown non-professionals brought a successful musical to Broadway.”
September 5th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
@Sly
Agree with the rest of your comment, but your characterization of Attlee is BS. The guy was the greatest PM of the UK bar none, and is remembered as our equivalent to FDR, so “milquetoast”? GTFO.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Two men say they’re Jesus, one of ‘em must be wrong
September 5th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
There’s a great Emmylou Harris non-labor song called “Going Back To Harlan”, also too.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
tee hee
September 5th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
@PeakVT: I said the guy was an Aussie, didn’t I?
September 5th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Oops. Got my H’s mixed up.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
@arguingwithsignposts:
Don’t know, but there really ought to be. Some songwriter should be able to tie it together with the chicken house fire in North Carolina in 1991. Management locked the exit doors in both of them.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Harry Bridges by Rancid.
September 5th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Great song for the north Carolina cotton mills by Si Kahn:
GOODBYE MONDAY BLUES
Chorus:
Goodbye Monday blues
Goodbye card room fever
Cotton dust has got my lungs
You know I’m bound to leave you
Verses:
When I was a little thing
Up in Pickins County
My daddy took me from the farm
To be a mill town baby
Not a man in all these mills
Could beat me once for doffing
Now it’s all that I can do
To sit here without coughing
Old man staring at his glass
In some back street bar room
These was once the fastest hands
In spinning, spool or card room
Si Kahn here with Gone Gonna Rise Again
September 5th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
For the white collar working drone, here is a great one from Scythian called Cubicles and Tylenol…
September 5th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
For the white collar working drone, here is a great one from Scythian called Cubicles and Tylenol…
Cubicles and Tylenol
Slave away the day
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Screaming clock, crooked walk, ungodly hour
Curse the man as you stand in the shower
Wondering how you ever landed the subscription
To punching clocks and wearing socks and office friction
As you snake, brake, make your way through traffic
You see the SOB's in HOV are laughing
Run the hall, to your stall, all perspired
You find you're late, it's half past eight and you're fired
Cubicles and Tylenol
Slave away the day
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Like a drone, on the phone, taking orders
Hide in bathrooms and wander in the corridors
Pleading, begging as the seconds pass like hours
For salvation from the clock's sadistic power
Afternoon, as you swoon, at your desktop
Jump online, wasting time, feel your brain stop
Suffer endlessly from your boss's mood swings
As you think about your drink when the bell rings
Cubicles and Tylenol
Slave away the day
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Five long days in an office space
You wonder where the years have gone
(Five long days in an office space
You wonder where the years have gone)
If this isn't just a white collar prison
Tell, where did the promises go wrong?
Cubicles and Tylenol
Slave away the day
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
Pass the glass, make the moment last
Tomorrow's just a day away
September 5th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
The Internationale!
The Preacher and the Slave
Solidarity Forever
September 5th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
@eemom:
I thought that if I did in fact know that, then I was sane. The greatest catch there is, right?
I also think this is a great song, though it’s more about health care than labor. But the point is the same.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
#92 – “Even if you disagree, you lost when you took the bait. So stow it.”
If I were an utterly childish loser and moron I’d tell you “Make me!” like a certan “eemom.” But I’ll pass and simply set you straight. I haven’t lost shit because as it stands, my only point is that the childish crap dominating ABL’s threads is beyond absurd and best kept where it seems to matter to some who are invested in the crazy. It’s annoying to see it spill over into other blog posts. If that makes me “pompous” I’ll take accusations of “pompous” over the quality of intellect exhibited here by eemom. “Teehee” indeed.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Dylan – Union Sundown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0mTVJI6ypI
September 5th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
John Henry,Bruce Springsteen with Seeger sessions band.Lots of good tunes.http://youtu.be/96YQdiMV-Jc
September 5th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
@Bruce S: Stop beating it. That horse has been dead for a while now.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
OMG! How could I have forgotten the Union rally in “The Pajama Game”? For all you kids on my lawn who are too young or too straight (Doris Day is in the clip) to know this, The Pajama Game was a ‘50s musical comedy about labor relations in a pajama factory. For maximum impact, you have to watch it all the way to the end.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
@Jewish Steel: Desmond Dekker’s “Israelites“. Not really a labor song, but there is a thread of exploited labor running through it. (I only know this because I read the lyrics.)
September 5th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
@superluminar:
I’m not saying he was a bad politician, just referencing Attlee’s personal style. Out of any leader of the Western world at the time, he was the politician least likely to engage in any kind of bombastic demagoguery or self-adulation. The man was practically congenial to a fault, and not exactly the harbinger of jack booted fascism.
As for the UK’s equivalent of FDR, I think that would more likely be David Lloyd George.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
@Bruce S:
Continuing to argue well after the person you’re arguing with has stopped is not exactly the mark of a winner.
September 5th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Since I’ll be going to Tom Morello’s show tonight, this has been on my mind: “Union Town.”
September 5th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Late to this thread, but for my (unemployed) 2 cents worth, I enjoyed hearing Fats Waller singing “Hallelujah! I’m a Bum” today.
September 5th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
@Chad N Freude:
I love that song!
It was used in the old 90s Matt Dillon movie Drugstore Cowboy, though I’m not quite sure how it fit.
September 5th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Late to the party here, but I don’t think anyone mentioned this gem. STRIKE!
September 5th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Gogol Bordello – “Through the Roof and Underground”
September 5th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
james connolly
black47
Marchin’ down O’Connell Street with the Starry Plough on high
There goes the Citizen Army with their fists raised in the sky
Leading them is a mighty man with a mad rage in his eye
“My name is James Connolly – I didn’t come here to die
But to fight for the rights of the working man
And the small farmer too
Protect the proletariat from the bosses and their screws
So hold on to your rifles, boys, and don’t give up your dream
Of a Republic for the workin’ class, economic liberty”
Then Jem yelled out “Oh Citizens, this system is a curse
An English boss is a monster, an Irish one even worse
They’ll never lock us out again and here’s the reason why
My name is James Connolly, I didn’t come here to die…..”
And now we’re in the GPO with the bullets whizzin’ by
With Pearse and Sean McDermott biddin’ each other goodbye
Up steps our citizen leader and roars out to the sky
“My name is James Connolly, I didn’t come here to die…
Oh Lily, I don’t want to die, we’ve got so much to live for
And I know we’re all goin’ out to get slaughtered, but I just can’t take any more
Just the sight of one more child screamin’ from hunger in a Dublin slum
Or his mother slavin’ 14 hours a day for the scum
Who exploit her and take her youth and throw it on a factory floor
Oh Lily, I just can’t take any more
They’ve locked us out, they’ve banned our unions, they even treat their animals better than us
No! It’s far better to die like a man on your feet than to live forever like some slave on your knees, Lilly
But don’t let them wrap any green flag around me
And for God’s sake, don’t let them bury me in some field full of harps and shamrocks
And whatever you do, don’t let them make a martyr out of me
No! Rather raise the Starry Plough on high, sing a song of freedom
Here’s to you, Lily, the rights of man and international revolution”
We fought them to a standstill while the flames lit up the sky
‘Til a bullet pierced our leader and we gave up the fight
They shot him in Kilmainham jail but they’ll never stop his cry
My name is James Connolly, I didn’t come here to die….”
September 5th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Long enough I’ve been up on Skid Row
And it’s plain to see I’ve nothin’ to show
I’m glad to pay those union dues
Just don’t judge me by my shoes
September 5th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
@Bruce S: so much for your pledge for civility, eh bruce?
/eyeroll.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
you’ve got a pot/kettle problem, son.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
@suzanne: i’ll take 25 samaras any day of the week. :)
September 5th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Anyone remember that “We Shall Overcome” was once a union song and then Pete Seeger took it to the civil rights marches? This isn’t the only one, just the only one I can remember right now.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
There’s a whole bunch by the Street Dogs – some original, some covers.
September 5th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
@ABL: Eh, she’s a bigot, too. But it’s her lack of anything remotely resembling the Queen’s English that’s like nails on my personal chalkboard.
September 5th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’s now descended to beating the plaque that commemorates the long-ago death of a horse on this spot. But chastened and set straight am I. Boy howdy and you betchum.
September 5th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
And a toast to the unsung heroes who never left the ground:
http://www.youtube.com/user/do.....zotaRLROtw
September 6th, 2011 at 5:26 pm