The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #6445 Message #37489
Posted By: Gene
08-Sep-98 - 07:15 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Talking Union
Subject: Lyr Add: TALKING UNION (from Pete Seeger)
TALKING UNION As recorded by: Pete Seeger Writers: Mill Lampell, Lee Hayes & Pete Seeger
INTRO: (Spoken) This song was written by Mill Lampell, Lee Hayes and yours truly, Peter Seeger, in the spring of 1941.
That was the year that Henry Ford was being organized into the CIO. And Woody Guthrie had taught the three of us the old Talking Blues, you know: ...
If you wanta get to heaven Let me tell you what to do Got to grease your feet And little muttons too.
And I think Mill, it was, thought of paraphrasing that and Lee added a verse and I add a verse and suddenly we had the song almost completed, except that we hadn't found any solution.
We'd, all we done is add up the problems, that we hadn't found how to solve any of them.
And about a month went by ... one day I was sitting up on the roof and realized that, uh, there's only one solution to it... We all wanta stick together.
So I made two verses to end it off, none of them rhymed and that's how the song talking union was born.
Now you want higher wages let me tell you what to do Go to talk to the workers in the shop with you You got to build you a union, got to make it strong But if you all stick together boys, twon't be long
You get shorter hours Better workin' conditions Vacations with pay Take your kids to the seashore
Course it ain't quite that simple, so I'd better explain Just why you got to ride on the union train 'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay We'll all be waiting till judgement day
We'll all be buried Gone to heaven St. Peter'll be the straw boss then, boys
Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten Pass out a leaflet, call a meetin'
Talk it over Speak your mind Decide to do something about it.
'Cos the boss may persuade some poor dam fool To go to your meeting and act like a stool But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact He's got a yellow streak a-running down his back
He doesn't have to stool, you know He'll always make a good livin' On what he takes out of blind men's cups
Well, you got a union now, you're sitting pretty; Put some of the boys on the steering committee The boss won't listen if one guy squawks But he's got to listen if the union talks
He'd better He'll be mighty lonely one of these days.
Suppose he's workin' you so hard it's just outrageous Payin' you all starvation wages You go to the boss, the boss would yell: "Before I raise your pay, I see you all in hell!"
Well he's puffin' a big seegar, feelin' mightly slick Thinks he's got your union licked He looks out of the window and what does he see But a thousand pickets and they all agree
He's a bastard! Unfair! Slave driver! Bet he beats his own wife!
Now boys you've come to the hardest time The boss'll try to bust your picket line He'll call out the police, the national guard Tell you it's a crime to have a union card
They'll raid your meetings, hit you on the head Call ev'ryone of you a 'goddamn red' - You're unpatriotic Moscow Agents Bomb throwers Even the kids
Well, out in Detroit, here's what they found Down in Pittsburg, here's what they found Down in Bethlehem, here's what the found Out in 'Frisco, here's what they found That if you don't let 'red baiting' break you up If you don't let stool pigeons break you up If you don't let race hatred break you up If you don't let vigilantes break you up
You'll win What I mean Take it easy But take it!
SOURCE: Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits Columbia CL-9416