The Music of Labor.•*¨*•.¸¸♬

Labor music are music written to attract independent laborers to join laborer groups (unions). In order to do so, the songs are usually written to popular tunes, such as hymns and folk songs. As we discussed in class, the lyrics are written to specific purposes, and they are also easy to memorize. According to Michael L. Richmond's article The Music of Labor: From Movement to Culture, from 1960's, the audience of labor music started to shift, there are songs of all kinds of social issue, such as segregation, women rights, and the conflict in Vietnam.

Richmond also wrote in the article that “the unions had their heroes as well”. The union Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, had their hero, Joe Hill. He was born in Sweden, and came to the United States at the age of 23. He joined the Wobblies around 1910, and wrote political songs for them. The song the Rebel Girl was one of those songs.This song was inspired by a women called Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. She was one of the leaders in Wobblies. She led strikes, gave speeches, and did all kinds of work that a labor leader and an activist usually does. She visited Joe Hill when he was in prison in 1995, and Joe Hill admired her a lot. He wrote this song, “the Rebel Girl”, saying that he was inspired by her, and that he hoped that more and more women could become women like her. He wrote both the lyrics and the music of the song. This song can show that how powerful that women laborers were in the laborer union, at least in the Wobbles.

Labor music still exist after 1960's. An example would be Si Kahn's song “Aragon Mill”. Written in 1974, this song brings its listeners to an abandoned mill in Aragon, Georgia. At that time, the globalization has just started, and the lower price of foreign made goods, and the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) make lots of domestic business enterprises have less profits. Many enterprises had to close shops, which led unemployed workers to increase in society. Kahn wrote in this song that “now I'm too old to work and I'm too young to die”, which expresses the despair of unemployed workers.

lyrics：

The Aragon Mill
Si Kahn
At the east end of town
At the foot of the hill
There's a chimney so tall
It says Aragon Mill.

But there's no smoke at all
Coming out of the stack
For the mill has shut down
And is never coming back.

And the only tune I hear
Is the sound of the wind
As she blows through the town
Weave and spin, weave and spin.

There's no children playing
In the dark narrow streets
And the loom has shut down
It's so quiet I can't sleep.

The mill has shut down
'twas the only life I know
Tell me where will I go
Tell me where will I go.

And the only tune I hear
Is the sound of the wind
As she blows through the town
Weave and spin, weave and spin.

I'm too old to work
And I'm too young to die
Tell me where will I go now
My family and I.

English scholar John Selden said that “More solid things do not shew the complexion of the Times so well, as Ballads and Libels”. It is true in terms of labor music. Although labor music had a long history, each song has their own purpose, and reflects the unique color of that time. Another quote from Andrew Fletcher goes: “If a man were permitted to write all the ballads, he need not care who made the laws of a nation”. Labor music can make real changes in society. They were written to attract laborers to join the union in the first place, and as Richmond points out, that “music provided a powerful tool to recruit new members”, they did success in hard times.

Broadside Ballad.•*¨*•.¸¸♬

I know there is a music genre called "ballad", but "broadside ballad" is a new concept for me. At first I thought broadside ballads are those ballads whose lyrics are used to criticize social and political issues. But broadside ballads are much more than what I have thought. The broadside ballad is the combination of traditional folk song melody and lyrics that comment on current social or political issues. The lyrics of broadside ballads were usually more than one verse, and always printed on one side of a piece of paper with illustrations and are sold for about one penny. Because of the traditional folk song melodies, and current local issues in the lyrics, almost everyone in the community could sing the songs, which made broadside ballads spread rapidly in community. Scottish patriot Andrew Fletcher said that "If a man were permitted to write all the ballads, he need not care who made the laws of a nation." Broadside ballads were newspaper at that time, and they raised public consciousness while when everyone was singing them.

An English broadside ballads

A broadside ballad from New England

The first broadside ballad was from the Great Britain, in the 16th century. Before that, there were only broadside sheets with no music. At the beginning of the  16th century, people in Britain started to replaced lyrics of traditional folk songs with stories on broadside sheets. Broadside ballads were popular in the Great Britain until newspapers replaced them after the 19th century. "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" is one of the British broadside ballads. The tune was first found in 1881, and the lyrics is a conversation between the son of Napoleon Bonaparte and his mother Marie Louise. This broadside ballads shows that the Irish people at that time were pro-Napoleon, because they were ruled by the British at that time, and they believed that Napoleon could change that. The lyrics can be found on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonny_Bunch_of_Roses#Lyrics 

A clip from 1965 of The Bonny Bunch of Roses

English broadside ballads were introduced to Americans in 17th century, and then they started to compose their own broadside ballads. There were broadside ballads about FDR, The Great Depreseion and the New Deal, as well as many social issues at that time. In 1960s, civil rights movement made broadside ballads popular again. One of the ballads is "The Ballad of Old Monroe." Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds wrote its lyric in 1962 for the Committee to Aid the Monroe Defendants before the trial of a young African American man Rob Williams, who was facing the charge of kidnapping a white couple in Monroe, North Carolina. The lyrics tell the truth that Rob Williams did not really kidnap the couple but saved them from an angry crowd. The lyrics: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr211.htm 

Broadside ballads raise consciousness in their unique way. Not everyone can read in the past, and messages can get lost if they are only passed orally. But because social and political issues were written as lyrics of familiar songs, people could understand the opinions of writers toward different issues while learning to sing the ballads. The low price made broadside ballads spread widely and rapidly, which also helped raising consciousness widely in the community. However, the lyrics were replaced so rapidly that not every version could remain. I am curious about how many broadside ballads (both from the Great Britain and America) can still be found, and sung today.