Joe Glazer (1918-2006) was a U.S. labor and political singer/sonwgriter. Glazer was born in New York City, the son of a garment worker, and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1938. You can read a more complete bio here. Of particular interest is his role in making the hymn I Shall Overcome into a labor song, from where it eventually became the anthem of the Civil rights movement.
Coming from this background, at that time, young Joe undoubtedly was exposed to a lot of labor and Socialist/Communist influence. Although he earned his his degree in mathematics, Glazer had an over 60-year musical career, and there is a video at the end of this diary in which he reminisces about his life and provides some good tips for aspiring Rebel Songwriters. But first let's go below the orange guitar with no fretboard and hear some of Joe Glazer's songs.
In this video, a young fellow gives his rendition of Glazer's The Mills Are Made of Marble. You don't need to have a background in factory work to be moved by this millworker's vision of heaven:
Here, Joe Glazer collaborates with Bill Friedland to spoof the Stalinists to a tune that has been parodied by several other here on DailyKos; Gilbert and Sullivan's When I Was a Lad. Some of the references are obscure nowadays, but it's a great piece of work:
About the same period of time, Glazer wrote this to the tune of Santa Claus is Coming to Town:
You'd better beware, you'd better be good,
You'd better do only the things that you should.
Joe McCarthy's coming to town.
He'll call you a pink, he'll call you a red,
He'll drive every liberal thought from your head.
Joe McCarthy's coming to town.
He knows when you're subversive, he knows each move you make;
His gumshow boys are watching, so be good for McCarthy's sake.
The next song,
Too Old to Work and Too Young to Die was not originally the "Social Security Song", as the caption says, but was written in support of bargaining for private pensions. In this later version Glazer changed the first verse, which originally went:
You work in a factory all of your life
And try to provide for your kids and your wife
But when you're too old to produce any more
They hand you your hat and they show you the door
Most of you will agree that this newer version is very timely:
In the 1980's, Glazer released Jellybean Blues which was mostly a spoof of Reaganism. For instance, to the tune of Silent Night:
Silent Night, Holy Night
The bible declares that we're right
The Lord's on our side and always will be
For Jerry* spoke to Him personally
* Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral majority
In addition to singing his own compositions, Glazer sang many songs written by others and many traditional folk ballads. For the best Irish dialect you'll likely ever hear from a Jewish guy, check out
No Irish Need Apply:
Now for the video I promised. Joe Glazer discusses his life and talks about the inspirational power of music and the role played by ordinary people in great mass movements. At 6:30 it's a little lengthy but well worth watching.
Joe died about a year after this video was made. I wrote this diary so that we Rebel Songwriters may learn from this man and carry on his work. I'm sure he would like nothing more.