I am hoping the minds here can help me rediscover a song that is proving un-googleable.
It was delivered in a folky spoken word storyteller style and told of some sort of union organizing/collective bargaining. The song also spoke about citizens being arrested for pro-labor speech and an attempt by the citizenry to flood the jails.
Somewhere along the line there is mention of finns or swedes.
The song closes with a general pro union segment.
The historical events depicted are very familiar but I can’t place them precisely.
Any help is much appreciated
Joe Hill?
Based upon a historical event.
Joe Hill come over from Sweden shores
Looking for some work to do
And the Statue of Liberty waved him by
As Joe come a sailing through, Joe Hill
As Joe come a sailing through
…
There things were just as bad
So he joined the industrial workers of the world
'Cause, The union was the only friend he had
'Cause, The union was the only friend he had
Now the strikes were bloody and the strikes were black
…
Most of my queries ended up landing on Billy Bragg or Joe Hill references, the song I am remembering was much more of a spoken word style though and seemed a bit more light-hearted.
Dang! I thought this was going to be a nice lob, but nope. The San Diego free speech fight saw many IWW members arrested. That was the tactic of the free speech fight: to “flood the jails” with protestors to put pressure on the city to restore the right to speak and organize unions in public.
Protestors were also “flooded” when police turned fire hoses on them during the demonstrations and I think when they were in jail. Many IWW members were Finns and Swedes, including Joe Hill, for whom Stephen King’s son is named. But I don’t know of a song that tells this story. I got songs about the Calumet Massacre, the Ludlow Massacre, the 1912 Canadian Northern strike, mining disasters, train wrecks, Harlan County, and more, but nothing that fits the OP. Let me know if you find something!
As for talking blues labour songs, the classic is Talking Union, and it is more lighthearted, but there’s no mention of Swedes or Finns. https://youtu.be/1Khc3mz0eSU?si=msDjyb_FkG3DrkNh
I am ashamed and will turn in my IWW membership card.
It definitely mentioned the folks being arrested for speech, and I believe there was a bit in there about them demanding reform of the jail conditions too. It seemed to be a song from the 1970s or newer based on the audio quality and speech patterns.
I heard it on a public or independent radio station in mid Michigan about three weeks ago.
The San Diego thing sounds right but for some reason I believe it was a story from somewhere in the northwest.
The Northwest makes sense, with lots of repression of the IWW there, including Centralia and Everett, and Finns and Swedes. Dave Rovics is a NW musician and might have a song about Centralia, but he’s too young to have been writing and singing in the 1970s. Can you contact the radio station for its playlist? Now I’m curious!
David Rovics suggests the answer may be in one of Utah Phillips’s albums, either “Good Though!” or “We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years: Utah Phillips Sings the Songs and Tells the Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World.” It has been years since I’ve played either album, but I played the heck out of them back in the day and don’t recall anything that nicely aligns with the OP’s quest, but I would not rely on my memory for this. Both albums are long out of print, though
I didn’t mean to imply it was from the 70s, that was meant as a rough estimate for the earliest possible. My gut says it was more likely the 90s. I am sorting through Rovics catalog to see. He seems close.
He didn’t claim to have written or sung anything like the song you’re after, only that the early Utah Phillips’s albums might have something. Can you contact the radio station you heard it on? Some stations put their playlists on the web.
I was traveling and it was happenstance that I tuned in. I can try to figure it out based on where I was at the time. Thank you for all the help here.
Good luck! If you find anything, please let me know!
After further reading about the IWW history, I believe that the song may have been about the Spokane free speech fight.
Found it!
Direct Action by Utah Phillips and Ani Difranco.
Sorry, I missed this! Glad you found it. Calling it a song threw me off: I’ve heard Utah tell this story several times, without the music overlaid. Glad you found it!
