World Famous Comics: The Big Red Songbook: 250-Plus IWW Songs
The Big Red Songbook: 250-Plus IWW Songs
From: Charles H Kerr Publisher: Charles H Kerr Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Charles H Kerr Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 550 Publication Date: March 01, 2007
Product Description: This is indeed an incredible endeavor. For sure the most comprehensive collection of rebel workers songs and poems ever compiled in English. It includes ALL the songs that appeared in the IWW s celebrated "little red songbook" from 1909 through 1973, plus dozens of others that never made it into the songbook. Here are the songs of Joe Hill, T-Bone Slim, Dick Brazier, Ralph Chaplin, Covington Hall and other Wobbly legends, as well as lesser known but ought-to-be legends such as Eugene Barnett, Paul Walker, and Henry Pfaff. For the first time anywhere, here's a good selection of songs by women Wobblies: Anges Thecla Fair, Laura Payne Emerson, Sophie Fagin, Jane Street, Laura Tanne and others, as well as songwriters from other continents--including Australians Bill Casey and Harry Hooton, the Englishman Leon Rosselson, Germans Ernest Riebe and John Olday, and the Scotsman Douglas Robson. A special section focuses on variants and parodies of IWW songs: a Depression-era version of "Hallelujah I'm a Bum," Jack Langan's 1960s version of "Solidarity Forever," an Earth First! adaptation of Joe Hill's "There is Power" by Walkin' Jim Stoltz, and Hazel Dickens' bold update of "The Rebel Girl." Best of all, perhaps, is the wealth of essays, analysis, references, bibliographies, and discographies, provided by Archie Green, his coeditors, and other collaborators, providing not only historical/biographical context, but also a wide range of perspectives on the Wobbly counterculture and its enduring legacies. With an afterword by Utah Phillips!
wonderful collection A wonderful collection of IWW songs, spanning six decades, with very informative essays and rich illustrations. Must reading for all labor/radical songs and labor history enthusiasts. These are not songs by Utah Phillips, but are drawn from numerous songwriters which were published in various editions of the IWW songbook. And a great price to boot.
American History through the looking glass These days when organized labor is typecast as another big and corrupt special-interest group, it's useful to remember back to the days when there were no retirement or unemployment benefits, no health plans, no Social Security, no workplace safety regulations -- and when it took grass-roots efforts by ragged and democratic organizations like these to establish the basic rights and protections we now take for granted, in the face of persecutions, beatings, burnings, shootings and lynchings by hired goons, vigilantes and even the US armed forces. A lot of this history has only recently appeared in US textbooks at the college level, never mind in the secondary schools.
This collection feels rich and detailed: a number of essays, scraps of memoir, and illustrations augment the headnotes which illustrate each song. Some of the lyrics are over the top in their worshipful attitude toward an idealized Soviet Union and a simplistic reading of Marxist ideology. But remember that in the teens, 20s and 30s the Communist Party was the only organized political movement that took more than token interest in labor issues. And as Pete Seeger has said, "A good song is a triumph of oversimplification." These songs were the engine of that struggle, and medicine for all its hurts, and proof that Woody Guthrie was right when he claimed that music can change the world.
Misleading title The last time I checked, songs consist of two things - lyrics and melody. Anyone considering buying this book should know, then, that it contains NO MELODIES. "The Big Red Lyric Book" would be a better title. It's a fine book for anyone who wants a history of the songs of the IWW - it has a wealth of essays, illustrations and historical biographies. If you want to use it to actually learn some Wobbly songs, though, it's not going to serve. I was disappointed when I first flipped through the book - I wanted a songbook, not a historical survey.
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