I woke up this morning to find Annie Jo's Marching Band diary at the top of the rec list.
Pulaski WI Marching Band 'Sticking to the Union' in Rose Bowl Parade (Update)
Right in the middle of the Rose Bowl Parade those kids were playing a Woody Guthire song. So great.
For those of you who may not be that familiar with "Union Maid" here's a couple of experts to tell you what it's all about.
Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie - Union Maid
So it's Protest Tuesday. They're voting in Iowa. I was born in Fort Dodge but the first home I remember is Sheboygan, Wisconsin. And I was raised knowing about scabs and finks.
So while you're waiting on the returns here's some Labor songs.
Utah Phillips- There is power in a union
As you can hear Utah Phillips was a great songleader and he wasn't shy about expressing his opinion. He also told a funny story once in a while. Like this one.
U. Utah Phillips - 4 - Funniest Story Ever!?
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
Solidarity Forever, Solidarity Forever, Solidarity Forever
For the union makes us strong
- Ralph Chaplin
Leonard Cohen - Solidarity Forever (The Union Makes Us Strong)
And he's still got it.
Leonard Cohen - Everybody knows (live in London, 2008)
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows
- Leonard Cohen
Here's a song that's become so embedded in American culture that people forget it's a labor song.
Johnny Cash - Sixteen Tons
Too late to stop now.
The Highwaymen, with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Glen Campbell sing "Highwayman" at Farm Aid in Champaign, Illinois on September 22, 1985.
The Highwaymen - Highwayman (Live at Farm Aid 1985)
I was a dam builder
Across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called boulder on the wild colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But i am still around..
I'll always be around and around and around and around and around..
- Jimmy Webb
Sometimes the songs say it better than I ever could
Thanks,
Hairy Larry