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You are here: Home / Economics / Fuck The Middle-Class / Labor day music thread

Labor day music thread

by DougJ|  September 5, 20111:48 pm| 162 Comments

This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Music

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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?

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Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    handy

    September 5, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Umm, no shout out to Jimmie Rodgers and Mule Skinner Blues? Tragic overlook, Big Baby DougJ.

  2. 2.

    pixelpusher

    September 5, 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

  3. 3.

    PurpleGirl

    September 5, 2011 at 1:55 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.

  4. 4.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    Two Good Men A Long Time Gone, by Woody Guthrie

  5. 5.

    Kathleen

    September 5, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    Coal Tattooo (both Judy Collins and Kingston Trio versions). Pastures of Plenty. Deportees.

  6. 6.

    Kane

    September 5, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    Is Take This Job and Shove It a labor song?

  7. 7.

    Davis X. Machina

    September 5, 2011 at 2:00 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!

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    What pixelpusher said. Also, “Workin’ in a coal mine, goin’ down down down” is catchy.

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    What pixelpusher said. Also, “Workin’ in a coal mine, goin’ down down down” is catchy.

  10. 10.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    Merle Haggard – Hungry Eyes

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQf8i2TzHg

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Oh, and “Nine to Five,” of course!

  12. 12.

    handy

    September 5, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    @Bruce S:

    Not to be confused with Eric Carmen’s song of the same name

  13. 13.

    Samara Morgan

    September 5, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    ima lissenin to Obama in detroit.
    Rise together.

    my arms are in the crowd scene.

  14. 14.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 5, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Billy Bragg does a bracing “Which Side Are You On?” I should dip back into his back catalogue sometime soon.

  15. 15.

    Davis X. Machina

    September 5, 2011 at 2:08 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.

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    Whole buncha Springsteen would fit… The River (whole damn album), Youngstown, Atlantic City, etc.

  17. 17.

    Wannabe Speechwriter

    September 5, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    What about Worker’s Song by Dropkick Murphys-

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k

  18. 18.

    c u n d gulag

    September 5, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    The greatest LABOR song of all time?

    “Having My Baby.”

    Let the booing ensue…

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    September 5, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Any version of John Henry.

  20. 20.

    MikeJ

    September 5, 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.

  21. 21.

    Yesbutwehavenobananas

    September 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    Hazel Dickens – Fire in the Hole – It’s on the soundtrack of Matewan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiGPbHnpQks

  22. 22.

    Chad N Freude

    September 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    @pixelpusher: Sixteen Tons

    Pretty cheerful style for a song about oppressed laborers, but a great song nevertheless.

  23. 23.

    BBA

    September 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    The people’s flag is palest pink,
    It’s not as red as you might think…

  24. 24.

    Punchy

    September 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    Its Union Maid, best cover to date is by Old Crow Medicine Show

  25. 25.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    OT, but bwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaa

    it finally happened: ABL “time outed” Cornered Stone.

    that sweet little voice has been SILENCED.

    heeheeheeeheeeeheeeee

  26. 26.

    lamh34

    September 5, 2011 at 2:17 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?

  27. 27.

    Davis X. Machina

    September 5, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    @BBA: The anthem of the Millbank Tendency faction.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    @Wannabe Speechwriter: Good choice.

  29. 29.

    Davis X. Machina

    September 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    @lamh34: Not a single mention of the public option, however.

  30. 30.

    adolphus

    September 5, 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.

  31. 31.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Big John

  32. 32.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:19 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

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    September 5, 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.

  34. 34.

    Chris

    September 5, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    Try “Eat The Rich,” by Aerosmith.

  35. 35.

    wrb

    September 5, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    I think we should celebrate our teamsters and this risks they take

  36. 36.

    adolphus

    September 5, 2011 at 2:21 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.

  37. 37.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    @Kane:

    Is Take This Job and Shove It a labor song?

    most certainly. I love the rap version of that at the end of Office Space.

  38. 38.

    Kane

    September 5, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    Working Class Hero – John Lennon

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU

  39. 39.

    Davis X. Machina

    September 5, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    @lamh34:

    Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa had some profane, combative words for Republicans while warming up the crowd for President Obama in Detroit, Michigan on Monday.
    __
    “We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war,” Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.
    __
    “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” Hoffa added.

  40. 40.

    MikeJ

    September 5, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    @adolphus:

    Tom Waits Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song)

    NRBQ’s Whistle While You Work goes along with that nicely.

  41. 41.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    @Bruce S:

    oh GFY, you self-important clown.

    Pompous ass.

  42. 42.

    Geoduck

    September 5, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    I’d second the mention of Joe Hill.

  43. 43.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    eemom – You’re an idiot. It’s that simple.
    Go troll another thread where somebody gives a shit…

  44. 44.

    SBJules

    September 5, 2011 at 2:27 pm

    I like Union Maid by Arlo & Pete Seeger:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuK4m3UzRk

  45. 45.

    Ted

    September 5, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    Billy Bragg- The world turned upside down

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stmiyeLsErw

  46. 46.

    tominwv

    September 5, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGZHPjowC28

  47. 47.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Lee Dorsey Working In The Coal Mine

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    September 5, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    @Bruce S:
    You’re overreacting. If you don’t care for eemom’s comment, you need only ignore it.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:32 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!”

  50. 50.

    eemom

    September 5, 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.

  51. 51.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:36 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

  52. 52.

    cleek

    September 5, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    the work song

    (NSFW)

  53. 53.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 2:37 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.

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 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.

  55. 55.

    Yutsano

    September 5, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Oh for fuck’s sake, if I have to pull this car blog over, you both will be sorry.

    FTFY. In both senses.

  56. 56.

    eemom

    September 5, 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?

  57. 57.

    JPK

    September 5, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    Great thread, DougJ. I’m with you on “Which Side Are You On?” Love it.

  58. 58.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:45 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

  59. 59.

    Chad N Freude

    September 5, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus, @Yutsano: Y’know, this is awfully reminiscent of a backseat fight between my grandkids when they were 7 and 9.

  60. 60.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    @Bruce S:

    …you’ve worn out any vestige of a welcome on this one.

    That statement seems to cut both ways.

  61. 61.

    Cat Lady

    September 5, 2011 at 2:52 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.

  62. 62.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    I’ll take Rage’s version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”.

  63. 63.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 5, 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.

  64. 64.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    @eemom: I’d personally much rather have CornerStone than FourLoko_chan.

  65. 65.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 2:55 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.

  66. 66.

    MikeJ

    September 5, 2011 at 2:56 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!”.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    September 5, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    @suzanne: When he’s all PUMA pouty I just laugh. When he gets personally insulting for no reason I get edgy. JMHO.

  68. 68.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    Dionne Warwick Do You Know The Way To San Jose

    And all the stars that never were
    Are parking cars and pumping gas

  69. 69.

    Cat Lady

    September 5, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    After they wrote and performed Union Maid, the same lady came up to them again complaining they didn’t write about the ladies auxiliary

    Proto-firebagger apparently, it occurs to me.

  70. 70.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    @Bruce S:

    see nos. 4, 31 and 37, reading-challenged clown.

  71. 71.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    @Yutsano: He can spell, though. And talk about more than one thing. So I can forgive.

  72. 72.

    Geoff

    September 5, 2011 at 3:04 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

  73. 73.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    @suzanne:

    but he is vicious. The child is not.

  74. 74.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 3:05 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. :/

  75. 75.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 5, 2011 at 3:06 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.

  76. 76.

    eemom

    September 5, 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.

  77. 77.

    Jane2

    September 5, 2011 at 3:08 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.

  78. 78.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 3:09 pm

    The Re4placements Waitress In The Sky

  79. 79.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 3:12 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.

  80. 80.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    @eemom: Eh. Doesn’t bother me so much. Everyone’s got their buttons to push, I suppose.

  81. 81.

    S. cerevisiae

    September 5, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    @Wannabe Speechwriter: Great choice! They also do a killer version of “Which side are you on”.

  82. 82.

    Draylon Hogg

    September 5, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    Dead End Street and Get Back In Line by the Kinks

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    September 5, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    @eemom:

    technically farm is a different category from labor.

    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.

  84. 84.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    @Bruce S:

    Still?

    …but you’ve still managed to fuck up the thread with horseshit that no sane person could possibly give a shit about.

    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.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Under US labor law, farm workers are always in a separate category.

  86. 86.

    burnspbesq

    September 5, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    “A Miner’s Life” by the great Irish-American band Solas.

    http://new.music.yahoo.com/solas/tracks/miners-life–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.

  87. 87.

    Raenelle

    September 5, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    As a bolshie, I don’t like it watered down: so, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCFibtD3H_k

  88. 88.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    @Bruce S:

    horseshit that no sane person could possibly give a shit about.

    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?

    And definitely do your best to counter my “pompous ass” or “clown” comments in suitable circumstances. I look forward to it.

    Counter as I may, you will still be a pompous ass.

  89. 89.

    Svensker

    September 5, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    How bout union man — a Cate Bros version.

    And a course Buffy Sainte Marie doing her awesome lefty stuff.

  90. 90.

    PeakVT

    September 5, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    Blue Sky Mine.

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    September 5, 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.

  92. 92.

    burnspbesq

    September 5, 2011 at 3:28 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.

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    @Amir Khalid: No, but it is, I think, the reason for the differentiation noted above.

  94. 94.

    eemom

    September 5, 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.

  95. 95.

    burnspbesq

    September 5, 2011 at 3:32 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.

  96. 96.

    barath

    September 5, 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.

  97. 97.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    September 5, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    .
    .
    Favorite Labor Day song? Obviously, I vote with c u n d gulag – “(You’re) Having My Baby” by Paul Anka.
    .
    .

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    @PeakVT: Peter Garrett is one odd looking and odd dancing dude. Just sayin’.

  99. 99.

    burnspbesq

    September 5, 2011 at 3:39 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

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    @barath: Good lord, the comments on that are ignorant and appalling.

  101. 101.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    Animals, We Gotta Get Out of This Place

    Don Henley, Sunset Grill

  102. 102.

    barath

    September 5, 2011 at 3:44 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.

  103. 103.

    PeakVT

    September 5, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: True, but it hasn’t hurt his career.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:49 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).

  105. 105.

    cleek

    September 5, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    Get Back In The Line

  106. 106.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 5, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Greatest concert experience ever: I had a front row seat for the Oils in Connecticut in, I think, 1990.

  107. 107.

    theBuhjaysus

    September 5, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    Unless I missed it…the Stones, “Rip this Joint”

  108. 108.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 3:55 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.

  109. 109.

    Batocchio

    September 5, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    Most of the Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger catalogs. Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad” is also good.

  110. 110.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    September 5, 2011 at 4:07 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

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    September 5, 2011 at 4:13 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.

  112. 112.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    September 5, 2011 at 4:14 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

  113. 113.

    Sly

    September 5, 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.

  114. 114.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    September 5, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    Then there’s this…Relating to eemom’s controversial un-topic.

  115. 115.

    Mino

    September 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yes. Unabashedly modern.

  116. 116.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    September 5, 2011 at 4:19 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

  117. 117.

    arguingwithsignposts

    September 5, 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

  118. 118.

    PeakVT

    September 5, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Why would someone spend time analyzing how the members of Midnight Oil dance?

  119. 119.

    Pappy G

    September 5, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    If you consider white collar profit drone work to be labor, Corporation Enema by Royal Crescent Mob.

  120. 120.

    Yutsano

    September 5, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Ron Paul is up next. Hoo boy is he going for the crazy. I’ve counted three dogwhistles so far.

  121. 121.

    Jewish Steel

    September 5, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Was trying to think of a working man’s reggae song

    In the period when the song was written, virtually all the power in the Jamaican music industry was in the hands of Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, who represent the “big tree” that musicians would have to cooperate to cut down.[1]

    Small Axe

  122. 122.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    September 5, 2011 at 4:24 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.

  123. 123.

    Dr. Psycho

    September 5, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    So why do we do it? Here’s why:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSsFcs8S4xM&feature=colike

  124. 124.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    September 5, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Hazard is in Perry County

  125. 125.

    arguingwithsignposts

    September 5, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: are there any songs about the Triangle Factory Fire?

  126. 126.

    KRK

    September 5, 2011 at 4:28 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.”

  127. 127.

    superluminar

    September 5, 2011 at 4:29 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.

  128. 128.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    Two men say they’re Jesus, one of ’em must be wrong

  129. 129.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    There’s a great Emmylou Harris non-labor song called “Going Back To Harlan”, also too.

  130. 130.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):

    tee hee

  131. 131.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    @PeakVT: I said the guy was an Aussie, didn’t I?

  132. 132.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    September 5, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Oops. Got my H’s mixed up.

  133. 133.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    September 5, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    are there any songs about the Triangle Factory Fire?

    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.

  134. 134.

    Comrade Kevin

    September 5, 2011 at 4:52 pm

    Harry Bridges by Rancid.

  135. 135.

    celticragonchick

    September 5, 2011 at 4:54 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

  136. 136.

    celticragonchick

    September 5, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    For the white collar working drone, here is a great one from Scythian called Cubicles and Tylenol…

  137. 137.

    celticragonchick

    September 5, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    For the white collar working drone, here is a great one from Scythian called Cubicles and Tylenol…</a

    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

  138. 138.

    MikeBoyScout

    September 5, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    The Internationale!

    The Preacher and the Slave

    Solidarity Forever

  139. 139.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    @eemom:

    hey Yutsy, Suzanne and Flip—did you know yer not SANE?

    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.

  140. 140.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 5:17 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.

  141. 141.

    Bruce S

    September 5, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    Dylan – Union Sundown:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0mTVJI6ypI

  142. 142.

    genghisjon

    September 5, 2011 at 5:23 pm

    John Henry,Bruce Springsteen with Seeger sessions band.Lots of good tunes.http://youtu.be/96YQdiMV-Jc

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 5, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    @Bruce S: Stop beating it. That horse has been dead for a while now.

  144. 144.

    Chad N Freude

    September 5, 2011 at 5:31 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.

  145. 145.

    Chad N Freude

    September 5, 2011 at 5:39 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.)

  146. 146.

    Sly

    September 5, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    @superluminar:

    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.

    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.

  147. 147.

    Amir Khalid

    September 5, 2011 at 5:56 pm

    @Bruce S:
    Continuing to argue well after the person you’re arguing with has stopped is not exactly the mark of a winner.

  148. 148.

    kideni

    September 5, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    Since I’ll be going to Tom Morello’s show tonight, this has been on my mind: “Union Town.”

  149. 149.

    dilford

    September 5, 2011 at 6:06 pm

    Late to this thread, but for my (unemployed) 2 cents worth, I enjoyed hearing Fats Waller singing “Hallelujah! I’m a Bum” today.

  150. 150.

    eemom

    September 5, 2011 at 6:16 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.

  151. 151.

    Radon Chong

    September 5, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Late to the party here, but I don’t think anyone mentioned this gem. STRIKE!

  152. 152.

    LanceThruster

    September 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Gogol Bordello – “Through the Roof and Underground”

  153. 153.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    September 5, 2011 at 6:47 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….”

  154. 154.

    Chet

    September 5, 2011 at 7:07 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

  155. 155.

    ABL

    September 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    @Bruce S: so much for your pledge for civility, eh bruce?

    /eyeroll.

  156. 156.

    ABL

    September 5, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    ” the childish crap dominating ABL’s threads is beyond absurd”

    you’ve got a pot/kettle problem, son.

  157. 157.

    ABL

    September 5, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @suzanne: i’ll take 25 samaras any day of the week. :)

  158. 158.

    BC

    September 5, 2011 at 7:40 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.

  159. 159.

    existential fish

    September 5, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    There’s a whole bunch by the Street Dogs – some original, some covers.

  160. 160.

    suzanne

    September 5, 2011 at 8:14 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.

  161. 161.

    burnspbesq

    September 5, 2011 at 8:26 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.

  162. 162.

    Dr. Psycho

    September 6, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    And a toast to the unsung heroes who never left the ground:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/doctorpsycho1960#p/f/5/6zotaRLROtw

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