I always loved "Build High the Bridge" done by Holly Near & Ronnie Gilbert, strangely I can't find it on you tube or the lyrics online. But a helluva good song nonetheless.
MB,
Many thanks for this particular post. You nail it right on in saying this is truly a 'Gilly song! Man, how I wish he were here today!
Don't scab for the bosses, don't listen to their lies.
The way things are headed, we're all gonna have to choose our side.
I'm on the side that fights back!!
SP
and you betcha, I too am BIG, BIG fan of Ms Merchant!
Today, I stood with my union and let a deadline pass. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but I haven't betrayed myself, my beliefs or my fellow workers.
Wow, our worlds collide, MB. First of all, if anybody out there has not seen the documentary Harlan County, make it your business to track down a copy and watch it.
Florence Reese's song is, both lyrics and music, based on an older song written by Aunt Molly Jackson (pronounce that like Aint) called "I Am A Union Woman". Aunt Molly was a midwife, songwriter, and eventual organizer for the NMU, the National Miners Union. Aunt Molly rode a horse from place to place in Appalachia, enlisting people in the union and trying to keep from being killed by the mine owners, a fearless woman with no education but serious smarts. Her song, with a tune that was a little slower and more dolorous (in the way of mountain people), went:
I am a union woman
As brave as I can be
I do not like the bosses
And the bosses don't like me
CHORUS (repeat twice):
Join the NMU
Come join the NMU
I was raised in old Kentucky
In Kentucky borned and bred
But when I joined the union
They called me Rooshian Red
The bosses ride fine hosses
While we walk in the mud
Their banner is the dollar
But ours is striped with blood
You can read all about her life and work at these two great sites, "a href='http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA05/luckey/amj/
kentucky.htm'>Pistol Packin' Mama and Bloody Harlan. She was a profound influence in both Pete and Peggy Seeger, and the shaping of folk music in general. Florence Reese's "adaptation" has never been seen as theft, really, since everybody knew where it came from; music was meant to be enlarged upon and used by later generations in their own way.
I came to her songs, in fact, by way of a lesbian singer/songwriter who focused on bluegrass, Robin Flower, during the 1970s. She and her band (including Nancy Vogl, Mary Wings, Joan Balter, all of them consummate musicians) would tell us about Aunt Molly Jackson, teach us the lyrics and we'd all sing "I Am A Union Woman" together. Thus, the above are from my memory.
I really like the Dropkick Murphys version of "Which Side Are You on". The song really works as a punk anthem.
what a good post and great comments. i'm learning new things everyday.
i like that. i'm a union baby born and bred.
What a great version of this song. I had not heard it.
I have to say I love this song but am not thrilled by the version you put up. I think a more vocally sparse clean rendition gets closer to the soul of the song than this. Malvina Renylds or Utah Philips both did it brilliantly. Also the lyrics you put up are the correct ones but not what she sang. In that video the final verse goes
Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless they organize.
Two small changes, loosing the us and changing we to they but important
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