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wobbly songs/continued from p. 27outside the IWW orbit yetmemorializing Hill achievedmore fame than most pieces inthe Wobbly canon. “Joe Hill”opens with “I dreamed I sawJoe Hill last night alive as youand me.” It has been sung byJoan Baez, Billy Bragg, JoeGlazer, Paul Robeson, PeteSeeger and many others. AlfredHayes (lyrics) and EarlRobinson (music) offered it initiallyin 1936 at Camp Unitynear New York City. Their gift—forged on a Communist PartyPopular Front anvil— hassometimes been erroneouslyattributed to Hill himself bycommentators who allege thathe composed it as a salute tofellow workers and a projectionof his immortality.A few words on the troublesomematter of definition mayhelp new readers in their evaluationof Wobbly songs. Most ofthe items gathered in The BigRed Songbook are no longersung, but remain of interest tohistorians, sociologists, and afew labor-union partisans.Although the very first bookletheld a traditional parody cherishedby itinerant workers,“Hallelujah, I’m a Bum” (irreverentlytitled “Hellelujah”), theIWW paid no special attentionto folklore theory, or the supposedvalues inherent in folksong.In the mid-1930s, someAmerican communists touchedby Popular Front ideologyembraced folksong. This commitmentcarried through untilthe 1970s “folk boom,” but itdid not hold much appeal toWobblies. However, the thirtyfourthedition songbook (1973),overturned precedent by includingWoody Guthrie’s “UnionMaid.” The thirty-fifth edition(1984), extended the processwith Les Rice’s “Banks ofMarble.” These two pieces represent“People’s Songs” intrusionsin time-tested IWW repertoires.The subject of “intrusion”has, and continues to be, controversial.During the 1920s and‘30s, IWW activists opposedCommunist Party policies.However, by the 1970s, with thepassing of many old-timers,young Wobblies were lessinvested in maintaining sectionaldifferences. In this context,“Union Maid” became acceptableto the IWW.Beyond the merits of enlarginga songbook with “outside”material, labor partisans face adifficult question: pop culture’sinfluence on Wobbly expression(characterized by FranklinRosemont in his study Joe Hill,2003, as “revolutionary working-classcounterculture”). I ask:Should Wobblies have resistedPopular Front formulas and“folksong revival” fare? Whatare this dilemma’s implicationsfor labor unionists in their culturaldecisions? How do wenavigate between contestationaland conciliatory strategies?Present-day IWW activistsdivide in assessing their musicalheritage. Some assert:“Economic forces outweigh culturalexpression; we need onlyto alter conditions at the pointof production; class strugglerelegates songlore to a derivativerole.” Others suggest thatIWW songs captured theunion’s spirit better than itsmanifestoes, pamphlets, andproceedings. “We should notapologize for our songs; ratherlet’s use them as ambassadorsto working people whereverthey toil.”Today, Wobbly songs seemsuspended between culturaldomains. Most are obscure; afew live in tradition. Not onehas achieved national popularityassociated with Broadway,Nashville, or Hollywood.Nevertheless, labor activiststreasure the corpus for internalcheer, oppositional message,and humane promise.Essentially, each Wobbly songthat carries into the twenty-firstcentury will affirm the linkageof poetry to cause, as well asmusic’s use in defining individualand social identity.My sketch above offers somegeneralizations about Wobblysongs. Here, I turn to a few ofthe issues faced by the informalcommittee of friends responsiblefor The Big Red Songbook.To identify myself: I haveworked first as a shipwrightand later as a teacher. Althoughsharing many Wobbly values, Iam not an IWW member. Instudies over the years, I haveprobed for the IWW’s place increating and extending laborlore.My views reflect tradeunionexperience and academicfolklore training.Included in The Big RedSongbook is the essay “JohnNeuhaus: Wobbly Folklorist” asI penned it nearly half-centuryago. Today, it can be read as amemorial to a friend and fellowworker. Also, it is a road markeron a still incomplete journey.Do we feel obligated to continueJohn’s exact path, or are wefree to set off in new directions?John Neuhaus was passionatein his belief that Wobbliesand friends should continue tosing all the numbers in theIWW songbooks (issued beforehis death in 1958). With thecentennial behind us, I do notshare John’s vision, for Ibelieve that most of the inclusionsretain value as cultural orhistorical artifacts, but not assongs in the repertoires of livingsingers.In the chronological andalphabetical check lists in theBig Red Songbook, we note allsongs to date. However, in ourmain text, we reprint only thoseitems through the thirty-fourthedition. This decision is arbitrary;it will not satisfy allenthusiasts; it raises the puzzlingquestion: What is aWobbly song? Is it any pieceprinted in an IWW songbook, orjust those that reflect IWW philosophy?Who decides the contoursof Wobbly belief?Almost all Wobbly songs[Continued on naxt page ➝]28 WIP Winter 2006-2007
wobbly songs/continued from p. 28have been recorded by interpretersrather than by traditionalsingers. This dichotomy hasraged in “folksong revival” circles.I shall not repeat the tiredarguments here. However, I dostress that very few Wobbliesmade field recordings in traditionalstyle. Does anyone whodesires to understand IWW lorenot wonder how the songswere performed when firstintroduced to copper-camp miners,factory-line workers, ortheir many peers?Wobblies faced harrowingregional, linguistic, and socialbarriers among men andwomen awaiting organization.To cite an instance: when a newlittle red songbook appeared inan East Texas piney-woodscamp or a Louisiana cypressmilltown, did the workersinvolved sound alike? It defiesreason to suggest that individualsof varied descent (Anglo,African, Mexican) in the IWWaffiliatedBrotherhood of TimberWorkers approached material ina singular voice. By imaginingthese diverse woods singers intheir particular styles, we arriveat a pluralistic view of IWW loremore challenging than the“folksong-revival” flavoreditems in the present discography.For many musical genres,loyal fans have produced LP orCD compilations based onethnographic and historicalresearch. Such an album ofWobbly songs is long overdue.It might recreate the sounds ofa century-old Sousa brass bandas well as an early ragtimeensemble. What did RichardBrazier experience when hetook in a Spokane vaudevilleshow? Has any Wobbly commentedon his exposure to abarrelhouse piano or a paralleloff-color ditty? Fred Thompsonhas described hearing oldChartist hymns in his nativeNova Scotia. Where did otherunionists become familiar withcamp-meeting hymns andgospel favorites? The challengeis great; the task lies beforepresent enthusiasts.I see no contradictionbetween the act of preparing aretrospective IWW album andcontinued effort to composeand circulate new material.Bibliographic and discographictools will provide useful in thistask of reconstruction. Readerswill observe that The Big RedSongbook’s two checklists holdonly English-language material.Hence, future fans can expandthese lists to include IWW songbooksin various tongues.Wobblies printed Swedishsongbooks both in the UnitedStates and Sweden. However,our present knowledge of otherforeign-language editions isincomplete. Similarly, ourdiscography cries for expansion.These gaps in documentationare especially ironic in thatWobblies were far ahead ofrival trade unionists in organizingimmigrants regardless ofrace or speech.In closing this overview, I amalso aware of the end of a personaljourney. Like other childrenof immigrants, I attendeda Workman’s Circle school inthe mid-1920s. There welearned labor songs, includingIWW classics. Too young to discernthe school’s politics, I associatedthese songs with thecampaign to save Sacco andVanzetti from the electric chair.In retrospect, it was a noblecause and a memorable introductionto Wobbly music.Massachusetts executed thetwo Italian anarchists on August23, 1927. I have sung, studiedand puzzled over IWW materialin all the following decades.Much of what is stated in thispreface repeats earlier formulations.Some of my views arecommonplace; others, controversial.I have already alludedabove to the thorny matter ofdefinition for Wobbly songs;this problem remains unresolved.I am convinced thatsome of The Big RedSongbook’s pieces proved difficult,if not impossible, to sing atthe time of their composition.Others caught on with singers;they circulated widely and werealtered in the process.Scholars fall back on twobasic beliefs: a song may entertradition; folksongs show variationover time and place. Beforethe popular interest in folksongin the 1970s, IWW memberspaid little attention to academicissues in defining their music.Some of these problems instatus and meaning are illustratedby “The Dehorn,” anirreverent parody set to thetune of “The Red Flag.” Itopens:The dehorn’s nose isdeepest red,The one bright spot inhis empty head,To get his booze he begsand steals,Half naked he goes withouthis meals.This piece never made it intoa little red songbook; did theeditors consider it sacrilegious?Upon first hearing Joe Murpheysing a bit of “The Dehorn”(Occidental, CA; 1958), I wasintrigued as he related it to anIWW technique in social control.Joe had served on dehornsquads in the Northwest lumberregion. These informal committees,in the vernacular,“dehorned the dehorns.” Tointerpret— during a strike, afew tough Wobblies wouldclose or dismantle the saloonsand brothels in order to keepworkers focused on vital issues.Thus, Joe recalled this song asmuch more than a humorousditty, for it represented a disciplinedresponse by the IWW toforces that destroyed workers’seriousness.With a fragment in mind, Iqueried John Neuhaus about“The Dehorn.” He had learnedit from Louis Gracey, a “shovelstiff,” treasured it, and taught itto me. Subsequently, I includedthe text in my Journal ofAmerican <strong>Folklore</strong> memorial to[Continued on naxt page ➝]2006-2007 Winter WIP 29
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Page 4 and 5: Works in progress is the magazine o
Page 6 and 7: artist*profile
Page 8 and 9: Samples of pajntaub from Pang’swo
Page 12 and 13: point*of viewThe BigRedSongbook:100
Page 16 and 17: pfp*exhibition
Page 18: CLIP, FOLD & USE YOUROWN ERIC JOSEL
Page 21: eric joselyn/continued from p. 16me
Page 24 and 25: pang xiong/continued from p. 21ntau
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Page 28 and 29: losang samten/continued from p. 9ri
Page 32 and 33: wobbly songs/continued from p. 29Jo
Page 34: 10% off with this AD!The BOARD OF C

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