Hymns for the plight of the working class.......

[marmar]

I was driving today, flipping through the wasteland that is commercial radio, when the Billy Joel song "Allentown" came on. I'm not a Billy Joel fan and really don't pay any attention to his music, but for whatever reason I zeroed in to the lyrics to "Allentown" - and they're actually quite good. I particularly like these:

.........

Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved.

So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron or coke,
Chromium steel.

:thumbsup:


What's your favorite working class anthem?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Joe Hill

"I never died" says he.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night

Often performed by Pete Seeger and Joan Baez.

By Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson, 1925.


I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me
Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead,"
"I never died," says he
"I never died," says he

"In Salt Lake, Joe," says I to him,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

"The copper bosses killed you, Joe,
They shot you, Joe," says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man,"
Says Joe, "I didn't die,"
Says Joe, "I didn't die."

And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes
Joe says, "What they forgot to kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize."

"Joe Hill ain't dead," he says to me,
"Joe Hill ain't never died.
Where working men are out on strike
Joe Hill is at their side,
Joe Hill is at their side."

"From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill,
Where workers strike and organize,"
Says he, "You'll find Joe Hill,"
Says he, "You'll find Joe Hill."

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me
Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead,"
"I never died," says he
"I never died," says he

Joe Hill, an IWW union organizer and poet, was executed in 1915 after being framed on a murder charge.

Joan Baez:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR6SMAJQW8Y

[pnorman]

3. That song of course, but also Solidarity Forever

When the Union's inspiration
Through the worker's blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
Anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on earth is weaker
Than the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong.

Chorus:
|: Solidarity forever! :|
Solidarity forever!
For the Union makes us strong
.
.
.

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/whenunio.htm

"Yet what force on earth is weaker
Than the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong."

The above explains UNIONISM as well as can be done with so few words!

[Yuugal]

4. Which side are you on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Qlkx-qwaM&feature=related

[deminks]

5. Jim Garland - I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGswPFJYM5g

i don't want your millions, mister
no, i don't want your diamond ring
all i want is the right to live, mister
now give me back my job again
give me back my job again
all i want is the right to live, mister
give me back my job again

i don't want your rolls royce, mister
no, i don't want your pleasure yacht
all i want is food for my babies
give to me my old job back

we worked to build this country, mister
while you enjoyed a life of ease
you've stolen all that we've built, mister
now our children starve and freeze ...

[deminks]

6. Arlo Guthrie: I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAG0XMRty5Y

[malaise]

7. I love Joe Hill

but I also love this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7v0O8M5vKc

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFOgV6LFllE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcXNXKtu8z4&feature=related

[deminks]

8. WAR duet by sinead o'connor and bob marley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KmFjefAt0

Substitute your own country, continent, cause. One song fits all.

[malaise]

9. Marley's Get Up Stand Up is another international anthem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuMlHdxiIZ8

[socialist_n_TN]

19. That's my favorite..............

Don't forget that Peter Tosh was a cowriter on that one.

[deminks]

10. The Times They are a Changin

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGe8OwnDvXk

(sigh)

[Starry Messenger]

11. "Which side are you on?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73NGB-siLIE

[B Calm]

12. We Can't Make it Here" Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

[deminks]

13. Born in the USA - Springsteen

I always smile when the freeps and creeps play this as a patriotic song. It is anything but that.

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up


Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

[deminks]

14. Same with Little Pink Houses

Freeps and Creeps think it is a song about the American Dream. Well, in a way, they are right.

There's a black man, with a black cat
Living in a black neighbourhood.
He's got an interstate running through his front yard
Ya know he thinks, he's got it so good.
And there's a women, in the kitchen
Cleaning up the evenin' slop.
And he looks at her and says
'Hey darlin' I remember when you could stop a clock.'

CHORUS
Oh but ain't that America for you and me.
Ain't that America something to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pinks houses for you and me.

There's a young man, in a t-shirt
Listenin' to a rock n roll station.
He's got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, "Lord this must be my destination."
'Cause they told me when I was younger
"Boy you're gonna be president."
But just like everything else those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went.

Well there's people and more people
What do they know know know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ooh yeah
And ther's winners and there's losers
But they ain't no big deal
'Cause the simple man baby pays for the thrills, the bills,
the pills that kill

[marmar]

15. You know, I've never really paid strict attention to the lyrics of "Little Pink Houses"....

..... Excellent !!

[LatteLibertine]

16. Here's one of mine :)

Fear Factory - Powershifter :

Feared your control and excessive greed
Abuse of your power disgraced me
You want war
You got war
More than you bargained for
I damn you and leave defiantly
Cut you out and take it all with me
You want war
You got war
More than you bargained for
Always question authority, control my own destiny
Forcing change, breaking free
From the gears of the machine
Changing my world so I can live
Execution powershift
I will forge my place in this time
Contention is sharply refined
I will expose you and force your demise
To take control of what is truly mine

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

That's from the poor/middle class to the most wealthy.

[deminks]

17. CCR: Fortunate One

Some folks are born
made to wave the flag

Ooh
they're red
white and blue.
And when the band plays
Hail to the chief

they point the cannon right at you.
It ain't me
it ain't me
it ain't no senator's son.
It ain't me
it ain't me;
I ain't no fortunate one.

Some folks are born
silver spoon in hand

Lord
don't they help themselves.
But when the tax man
comes to the door

Lord
the house looks like a rummage sale.
It ain't me
it ain't me
I ain't no millionaire's son.
It ain't me
it ain't me;
I ain't no fortunate one.

Some folks in her it
star spangled eyes

Ooh
they send you down to war.
And when you ask them

How much should we give ?
They only answer more ! more ! more !
It ain't me
it ain't me
I ain't no military son.
It ain't me
it ain't me;
I ain't no fortunate one.

[malaise]

18. Lovely thread marmar

:grouphug: