Hand-Picked Reels: Labor Songs
Famous statue of John Henry in Talcott, West Virginia. Photo by Ken Thomas.
Maybe you’re grilling some burgers (or veggie burgers, however you roll) and knocking back a few oat sodas in your backyard. Maybe you’re heading back from a festival. Maybe you’re just enjoying the rest of this long, leisurely weekend off work. Or maybe you have one of those jobs that didn’t give you Monday off. No matter how you’re spending Labor Day, this low-key holiday is known not only as a day for working men and women to kick up their feet – and an excuse for obnoxious furniture and tire sale ads – but also the unofficial end of the summer season.
But the relatively mellow nature of the holiday belies its origins. Although it had been celebrated since 1882 by labor unions, Labor Day didn’t become an official national holiday until 1894. The events that led up to this began in the town of Pullman, Illinois, which is now part of Chicago. At the time, Pullman was a company town for the Pullman Palace Car Company, which built rail cars. Employees were required to live in Pullman and pay for everything at company stores (but not alcohol – that was outlawed). Even utilities like water and gas were sold through the company, and rent was paid with paycheck deductions. Although the town was more aesthetically pleasing and provided a higher standard of living than other factory towns, which were usually no better than run-down tenements, this arrangement still effectively kept employees in debt to the company.
When the country hit a recession in the 1890s, the company began to slash wages. On May 11, 1894 about 3,000 Pullman employees went on strike as a result, angry about their 30% pay reductions without subsequent decreases in rent. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, supported the striking workers by launching a boycott that June. Union members refused to run trains with Pullman cars. Production in Pullman factories was shut down as the company imposed a lockout in response. This standoff between the first industrial union in America and the powerful railroad corporations escalated quickly that summer, involving 250,000 workers across 27 states at one point, and crippling railway traffic nationwide.
Early that July, President Grover Cleveland sent 12,000 troops to break the strike, on the grounds that the strikers were obstructing the U.S. mail. In the resulting conflict between the troops and the workers, at least a dozen strikers were killed and many others wounded. Wanting to quickly make peace with the labor movement, the Cleveland administration worked with Congress to swiftly and unanimously pass a resolution to make Labor Day an official national holiday.
Although it was over a century ago, we certainly can’t forget these important chapters in our history. It’s always crucial to fight for, and celebrate, justice and fairness, and music often provides us with much needed inspiration and insight in that regard. With that, we’d like to offer you a few songs that examine labor in America. These are just scratching the surface, a starter to get you digging deeper on this Labor Day.
As a mythic figure of the working man, John Henry has been celebrated in countless songs and stories. Although it was hard to pick just one angle on his tale, this version of the traditional “John Henry” by Mississippi Fred McDowell captures the raw emotion of the story in McDowell’s killer guitar work.
Merle Travis performs “Nine Pound Hammer,” another song inspired by John Henry, on the 1950′s TV Show “Ranch Party.”
One of the most well known American labor songs, “Which Side Are You On?” was famously performed by Pete Seeger, but the song was originally written in 1931 by Florence Reece, the wife of a union organizer for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky. After she and her children were threatened in their home by hired agents of the mining companies, she wrote the lyrics to “Which Side Are You On?” on her kitchen calendar, setting the words to the melody of a traditional Baptist hymn.
Two generations of Guthries – Arlo and Sarah Lee – sing Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid,” with an introduction by Arlo about this song, and another tune, “Ladies’ Auxiliary.”
Let’s jump to 2008, with an insider’s look at factory work by Wichita, Kansas’ Split Lip Rayfield. The accompanying video is made with some vintage found footage and put together by a fan, but the song was written by mandolin player Wayne Gottstine about working in a factory in the 21st century.
Finally, the one and only Todd Snider gives us some insight into white collar blues with “Stuck on the Corner (Prelude to a Heart Attack).” Definitely turn the volume up to hear Snider’s introduction, where he describes the inspiration to this song. One thing’s for sure – money doesn’t buy you happiness.
