Happy Monday, readers! In recognition of the work week starting yet again, today's song is a piece from the Industrial Workers of the World. "The Preacher and the Slave", also called "Long-Haired Preachers", was written by union organizer and later martyr Joe Hill in 1911. The song was written during a period of conflict between the anti-capitalist IWW and the Salvation Army, which opposed the union's leftist goals. In some cases, bosses opposed to the IWW's message would even send in Salvation Army bands to drown out agitators and speakers. This song is one of several parodying the Salvation Army's hymns- in this case, the song "In the Sweet By and By", written in 1868 by S. Fillmore Bennett and Joseph P Webster. The following rendition is by Utah Phillips, the late famous folk singer, Wobbly, and co-founder of the Catholic Workers' Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City.
This rendition is by Blake Hutchings, a UK-based singer/songwriter
The lyrics are as follows, with the parts in brackets often shouted by other performers, as seen in this recording of myself and a banjo-picker named Rachel perform it some years ago in St. Cloud.
Verse #1:
G C G
Long-haired preachers come out every night
G D
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right
G C G
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
G D G
They will answer in voices so sweet
Chorus Type #1:
G C
You will eat [you will eat!], bye and bye [by and by!]
G D
In that glorious land above the sky [way up high!]
G C
Work and pray, live on hay [live on hay!]
G D G
You'll get pie in the sky when you die [that's a lie!]
Verse #2:
G C G
And the Starvation Army, they play
G D
And they sing and they clap and they pray
G C G
Till they get all your coin on the drum
G D G
Then they tell you when you're on the bum
Chorus Type #1
Verse #3:
G C G
Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out
G D
And they holler, they jump and they shout
G C G
Give your money to Jesus, they say
G D G
He will cure all diseases today
Chorus Type #1
Verse #4:
G C G
If you fight hard for children and wife
G D
Try to get something good in this life
G C G
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell
G D G
When you die you will sure go to hell.
Chorus Type #1
Verse #5:
G C G
Workingmen of all countries, unite
G D
Side by side we for freedom will fight
G C G
When the world and its wealth we have gained
G D G
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain
Chorus Type #2:
G C
You will eat, bye and bye [bye and bye]
G D
When you've learned how to cook and how to fry [how to fry!]
G C
Chop some wood [chop some wood], 'twill do you good [do you good]
G D G
Then you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye [that's no lie!]
Welcome back to Folk Infusion! Today's song is "John Brown's Body", an old Civil War marching tune, as well as some major anthems that have spring up from the same tune. The song is written in honor of the abolitionist John Brown, most famous for his attacks on members of pro-slavery militias in Kansas, his attempted taking of Harper's Ferry in Virginia, and his subsequent execution.
The tune of the song was taken was from "Say Brothers Will You Meet Us", a simple and repetitive three-verse hymn from the camp meetings of the Second Great Awakening of the 1800s (though some folk music historians claim it goes back further, to an African American wedding song, a British sea shanty, or a Swedish tune). This Second Great Awakening, which began in the 1790s and had passed its peak around the 1840s, was a Protestant revival movement in response to the rise of skepticism, deism, and rationalism. During the Awakening, itinerant preachers would roam the frontier, organizing large meetings where families would travel and camp to listen to preachers and sing hymns. In typical Camp Revival style, "Say Brothers Will You Meet Us" has no set lyrics. Improvisation, driven by religious fervor and passion, was important to revivalist music.While I cannot find a recording of the hymn and have neither the time nor inclination to make one, a person listening at a camp revival may have heard lyrics something like this:
Say, Brother, will you meet us down by Canaan's happy shore? (x3)
as we go marching on
Chorus:
Glory, glory, alleluiah! (x3)
as we go marching on
Say, Sister, will you meet us down by Canaan's happy shore? (x3)
as we go marching on
By the grace of God we'll meet you,...
That will be a happy meeting,.....
Jesus lives and reigns forever,....
his Judgement Day is coming...
It was from this basic mold that John Brown's Body arose. The new lyrics seem to have come,
according to an 1890 account, from a group of soldiers in the
Massachussetts Second Infantry Batallion, or the "Tiger Batallion".
Apparently, these soldiers were not only singing about John Brown the
abolitionist, but also getting some degree of mirth from the fact that a
Sergeant John Brown was enlisted with them. According to the veteran George Kimball's account in 1890,
"We had a jovial Scotchman in the battalion, named John Brown. . . . and
as he happened to bear the identical name of the old hero of Harper's
Ferry, he became at once the butt of his comrades. If he made his
appearance a few minutes late among the working squad, or was a little
tardy in falling into the company line, he was sure to be greeted with
such expressions as "Come, old fellow, you ought to be at it if you are
going to help us free the slaves"; or, "This can't be John Brown--why,
John Brown is dead." And then some wag would add, in a solemn, drawling
tone, as if it were his purpose to give particular emphasis to the fact
that John Brown was really, actually dead: "Yes, yes, poor old John
Brown is dead; his body lies mouldering in the grave."
These phrases eventually became a mantra, according to Kimball's account, until they were adapted into words and put to the tune of the hymn. By May 12, 1861, the song was used as a flag-raising anthem at Fort Warren. On July 18th, Boston newspapers reported the Tiger Battalion singing the song while marching through the city's streets, and a rash of broadsides appeared, spreading the tune.
The song varied, as marching songs are wont to do, from place to place much like the hymn that inspired it. The basic model, however, was:
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; (3X)
He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
His pet lambs will meet him on the way; (3X)
They go marching on!
(Chorus)
They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree! (3X)
As they march along!
(Chorus)
Now, three rousing cheers for the Union; (3X)
As we are marching on!
From the beginning, the song's somewhat irreverent lyrics caused discomfort to some listeners.
It may have been these concerns that caused William Weston Patton to write and publish his more lyrical version of the song, in December 1861 in the Chicago Tribune. These lyrics are follows:
Old John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,
And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;
Now, tho the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
He captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled thru and thru;
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,
Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,
And soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,
For his soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.
And heaven shall ring with anthems o’er the deed they mean to do,
For his soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,
The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,
And his soul is marching on.
(Chorus)
The following rendition features the lyrics of the re-write.
Pete Seeger sings a hodge-podge of the original song, the more lyrical re-write, and the later Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Various adaptations were made of the new song. These included The Marching Song of the First of Arkansas and the very similar song, "The Valiant Soldiers", both celebrating black Union soldiers during the war and Reconstruction. The most famous, however, is the one written by the poet and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, entitled "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Howe, who later in her life would be a pacifist and a suffragette, wrote the song after viewing a public review of the war-bound troops in Upton Hill Virginia, outside of Washington, DC. She was in the area with her husband to visit the White House and meet President Lincoln. The couple's friend, the Unitarian abolitionist minister James Freeman Clarke, suggested that she write new and improved lyrics to the rough song.
"I went to bed that night as usual, and slept, according to my wont,
quite soundly. I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay
waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine
themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to
myself, 'I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep
again and forget them.' So, with a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed,
and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered to
have used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking
at the paper."
The lyrics that she wrote are as follows, with the video showing the folk singer Odetta's powerful, reverential rendition.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
(Chorus)
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.
(Chorus)
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
(Chorus)
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
As with previous iterations of the tune, this version spawned new songs of its own. The US paratroopers adapted the song with the characteristic gallows humor of the military, in their song, Blood on the Risers.
Ralph Chaplin designed the IWW "Sabot Cat"
Finally, it bears mentioning the adaptation that turned the song from an anthem for the Union army to an anthem for labor unions. Solidarity Forever was written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, inspired in part by his years of organizing in the coal country of West Virginia. The song was adopted by the Industrial Workers of the World (or "Wobblies"), which Chaplin joined and spent the rest of his life in, including being imprisoned under the Espionage Act for IWW opposition to the First World War. Solidarity Forever spread beyond the IWW to other unions, including the AFL-CIO, and now one of the foremost union anthems in the United States.
A somewhat less inspiring attempt to adapt the song into a message on economic justice is the Battle Hymn of Cooperation. Somehow, "consumers marching on" fails to rouse the spirit. As a personal anecdote, I once witnessed yet another 'rendition' arise in St. Cloud, MN in the early 2000s, when my incessant singing of "Solidarity Forever" and touting the merits of the IWW lead several members of a local punk band to sing "Union, union union uuuuunion"to the song's tune. This, of course, vexed my own union-talk-weary bandmates greatly.
The following is Pete Seeger's rendition of Solidarity Forever.
When the union's inspiration through the workers' 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,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.
Chorus
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.
Chorus
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.
Chorus
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
Chorus
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
Today's song is The Jute Mill Song, a Scottish piece from the
Industrial Revolution, written by the socialist agitator Mary Brookbank. Brookbank, a communist activist, was a jute mill worker herself. At the time she wrote the song, Dundee was the jute capital of Europe- indeed, of the world.
Women and girls working at a Dundee Jute Mill
The first jute mill was built in Dundee around the 1830s when it was
discovered that whale oil from the city's whaling industry could be used
to make the spinning of the Indian fiber possible. Employing rural
migrants, the Jute Barons made Scotland the gateway to the European jute
market during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with over 130 mills
employing 40.3% of Dundee's workers in 1911- 75% of those workers being
women, many of them married. Brookbank described the experiences of these women in writing as well as song. To quote,
"The life of the women workers of Dundee right up to the thirties was ... a
living hell of hard work and poverty. It was a common sight to see women, after
a long ten-hour-day in the mill, running to the stream wash-houses with the
family washing.
They worked up to the last few days before having their bairns. Often they would
call in at the calenders from their work and carry home bundles of sacks to
sew. These were paid for at the rate of 5 pence for 25, 6 pence for a coarser
type of sack. Infant and maternal mortality in Dundee was the highest in the
country."
Women working in a Bangladesh jute mill
The days of Dundee as the center of the world's jute industry were not to last forever. The conquest of South Asia
during the 19th century allowed the investors to move operations to the cheaper labor of
colonial Bangladesh, and by 1914 these investments had paid off in cheap
imported jute, leading to the industry's decline from Dundee after the
First World War. Dundee fell into economic depression until new
industries located there after World War Two. India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh continue to lead the world in jute exports today.
I've chosen two versions of the song to represent the song. Karan Casey's arrangement is finely sung, with instrumentation, though it is somewhat faster than the typical arrangement.
The lyrics of the song are as follows:
O, dear me, the mill is running fast
And we poor shifters canna get nae rest
Shifting bobbins coarse and fine
They fairly make you work for your ten and nine
O, dear me, I wish this day
were done
Running up and doon the Pass is nae fun
Shiftin', piecin', spinning warp, weft and twine
To feed and clothe ma bairnie offa ten and nine
O, dear me, the world is ill-divided
Them that works the hardest are the least provided
But I maun bide contented, dark days or fine
There's no much pleasure living offa ten and nine
I've also included Tony Archibald's version, which is closer to the tempo the song is typically sung at. Another great example is Frances Carlin's recording, as well as Ewan McLennan's.
I recently made my own recording of the song. This version is in English, rather than Scots, and played in standard tuning on Capo 3 and
played on the C, F and G7 chords, fingerpicking in the middle four
strings (which, of course, makes the G7 interchangeable with a G, the high E not being played).
One of the aspects of this song that I enjoy is that, while it is a clearly political song written by a political author for political purposes, the lyrics do not explicitly become social criticism until the last verse. Instead, it lays out in plain terms the experiences, feelings, and frustrations of the mill worker. Instead of starting from a grand and abstract view of the whole of society, it starts from a humanizing, personal perspective, and builds from there. This is a very powerful technique in writing political songs, as seen in such examples as Plane Wreck at Los Gatos, the Ballad of Joe McDonnel, or Paradise. The Jute Mill Song is one of the best examples of it- when it does finally reach its political message, it does so only briefly, but plainly. Instead of becoming excessively blatant and pontificating
on its point, the song first invites the listener into empathizing with the mill workers and their experiences, then reaches its broader conclusions as a natural extension of those experiences.
_tcm4-566804.jpg)
