Show 40: Labor's Legacy in Blues
Work songs, union songs, hard-luck songs, and plain old job-worn blues all gather here. The set makes the case that labor is not a side theme in this music (it is one of the things the blues was built to talk about. Work songs and field hollers are antecedents to blues, not blues proper) the show holds both because the line between them is rarely clean.
In honor of Monday's Labor Day, for the next two hours I've prepared a playlist of tracks from the first half of the twentieth century which encapsulate the heart of the labor union movement. From the coal miners of Harlan County, Kentucky, to the Dust Bowl refugees of Oklahoma, to the pre-FDR inner-city blues, we're going to hear a wide variety of our young nation's struggles. To start us off, I'll play a few songs out of Kentucky from the 1930s. Up first is the most famous labor movement anthem in American history, "Which Side Are You On," written by Florence Reece and sung here by Mrs. Reece herself. This will be immediately followed by Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers' avalanche of a harmony that'll crack you over the head like the bat of the boss's thugs. But now, here's Mrs. Reece.
Work songs, union songs, hard-luck songs, and plain old job-worn blues all gather here. The set makes the case that labor is not a side theme in this music (it is one of the things the blues was built to talk about. Work songs and field hollers are antecedents to blues, not blues proper) the show holds both because the line between them is rarely clean.
| Order | Track | Artist | Segment | Bridge | Story |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which Side Are You on? | Florence Reece,The Almanac Singers | 1 | - | |
| 2 | Ragged Hungry Blues (Pt.1) | Aunt Molly Jackson | 1 | - | |
| 3 | Sixteen Tons | Merle Travis | 1 | - | |
| 4 | Dark As A Dungeon | Merle Travis | 1 | - | |
| 5 | Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill | Cisco Houston | 1 | - | |
| 6 | 1913 Massacre | Woody Guthrie | 1 | - | |
| 7 | Farmer-Labor Train | Woody Guthrie | 1 | - | |
| 8 | Pastures of Plenty | Woody Guthrie | 1 | - | |
| 9 | Union Burying Ground | Woody Guthrie | 1 | - | |
| 10 | This Land is Your Land | Woody Guthrie | 1 | Yes | Story |
| 11 | Tom Joad, Pt. 1 | Woody Guthrie | 2 | Yes | - |
| 12 | Tom Joad, Pt. 2 | Woody Guthrie | 2 | - | |
| 13 | I've Got to Know | Woody Guthrie | 2 | - | |
| 14 | Gonna Roll The Union On | Woody Guthrie | 2 | - | |
| 15 | John Henry | Big Bill Broonzy | 2 | - | |
| 15 | John Henry | Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston | 2 | - | |
| 16 | Talking Union | The Almanac Singers | 2 | - | |
| 17 | Solidarity Forever | Pete Seeger | 2 | - | |
| 18 | I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister (All I Want) | The Almanac Singers | 2 | Yes | - |
| 19 | Long Haired Preachers (Preacher and the Slave) | Harry McClintock | 3 | Yes | - |
| 20 | Anecdote on Joe Hill | Harry McClintock | 3 | - | |
| 21 | Casey Jones (The Union Scab) | Harry McClintock | 3 | - | |
| 22 | Plow Under | The Almanac Singers | 3 | - | |
| 23 | The Mill Was Made of Marble | Joe Glazer | 3 | - | |
| 24 | Breadline Blues 1932 | Bernard Slim" Smith" | 3 | - | |
| 25 | The Bourgeois Blues | Lead Belly | 3 | - | |
| 27 | Unemployment Stomp | Big Bill Broonzy | 3 | Yes | - |
| 28 | W.P.A. Blues | Casey Bill Weldon | 4 | Yes | - |
| 29 | Cotton Choppin' Blues | Big Bill Broonzy | 4 | - | |
| 30 | Roll the Union On | John Handcox | 4 | - | |
| 31 | Citizen CIO | Tom Glazer,Josh White | 4 | - | |
| 32 | I'll Do Anything But Work | Ray Charles | 4 | - | |
| 33 | Hard Work Boogie (Hard Luck Boogie) | St. Louis Jimmy Oden | 4 | - | |
| 34 | Too Lazy | T-Bone Walker | 4 | - | |
| 35 | Eisenhower Blues | J.B. Lenoir | 4 | Story | |
| 37 | Working in the Coal Mine | Lee Dorsey | 4 | - | |
| 38 | Coal Miner's Daughter | Loretta Lynn | 4 | Yes | - |
| 39 | Joe Hill | Paul Robeson | 5 | Yes | - |
| I'm Gonna Join That One Big Union (You Gotta Go Down And Join The Union) | Woody Guthrie | - | |||
| Strike Blues - Extended Take | John Lee Hooker | - | |||
| Voting Union | Hays & Wood,Tom Glazer,Pete Seeger | - |