Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Mark Ross
Date: 27 Dec 06 - 07:12 PM

He still plays that big blond Guild. The 1st song is OLD BUDDY GOODNIGHT, and the 2nd is called GOIN' AWAY, they're both in the songbook STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS both on line at Utah's website and in his new audio songbook of the same name, a 4 CD set.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: OtherDave
Date: 27 Dec 06 - 09:25 PM

I know for sure that someone sang The Balled of Joe Hill at Walter Reuther's funeral in 1970, because I watched the service on television. I can't say for certain, but my guess is that the singer was Utah Phillips.

...Regarding the Wolverine, Amtrak's train 350/351 bore that name back in 1979, and a quick check of the Amtrak website shows me they're still running a Wolverine. (That was the morning departure from Detroit to Chicago, and vice-versa; the afternoon counterpart was The Twilight Limited.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 28 Dec 06 - 12:26 AM

I never heard a song by Utah called "The Ballad Of Joe Hill" ---- but Phil Ochs did one called that I think -- to the tune of "John Hardy"----a long ballad telling the whole story of Joe Hill.

Could that've been Phil Ochs you heard?

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 06:16 PM

Art,
You weren't thinking of "The Ballad Of Tom Joad" by Woody were you? It used the tune of John Hardy and took up both sides of the record (78)to tell the story of Steinbeck's "The Grapes Of Wrath".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: fumblefingers
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 07:18 PM

I have "Moose Turd Pie" in mp3 format if anyone wants it. 8.3megs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,Brian Feldus
Date: 27 May 07 - 11:36 PM

I heard a song, about 30 years ago, and I believe it was Nevada Jane. Off and on, since that Timw, I've been looking for they lyrics. Does anyone know this song and where I could get the lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Mark Ross
Date: 28 May 07 - 09:44 AM

If you check out Utah's website, his songbook STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS is online. NEVADA JANE is there.

Mark Ross

www.utahphillips.org

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,pace
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 02:20 PM

does anyone know the lyrics to
"the new Colorado state song"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Mark Ross
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 02:42 PM

Just posted them on the other thread you started, hang on a sec and I will cut & paste them here.

Mark Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: NEW COLORADO STATE SONG (Utah Phillips)
From: Mark Ross
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 02:44 PM

Here they are, with my comments.


Back when I first visited Utah at his then home in Spokane, there was a letter framed, and prominently displayed, from U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder thanking him for having written this song.

Mark Ross


THE NEW COLORADO STATE SONG
Bruce "U.Utah" Phillips



I understand that Boeing lost a contract,
They're laying off a thousand engineers,
And they all want to move to Colorado,
And open up a charge account at Sears.

Chorus;
Well you can visit now and then,
Bring your money, bring your friends,
Bring your campers and your Winnebagoes too.
Bring your festivals and dope, and we all sincerely hope,
That you don't forget to leave when you get through.

Oh, you see 'em standing out along the highway,
With their big red packs and long shaggy hair,
And they all want a lift to Colorado,
But I don't care I'll leave them standing there.

Chorus;

We've had a lot of trouble with the Jetset,
Those lazy, no good bastards love to ski,
And they all want to fly to Colorado,
And tear up all our mountain greenery.

Chorus;

So as I travel all around this country,
I've seen many different kinds of bums,
And they all want to move to Colorado,
And make it just like all your Eastern slums.

Chorus;

Subject: ADD: Someday That Ship Gonna Sail (Utah Phillips)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 01:48 AM

Somebody asked me for lyrics of this song, so I thought I'd post it here. I found it in a very interesting article, so I thought I'd post the entire article:

Someday That Ship's Gonna Sail (article by Orion Gray)



By popular demand, we are printing the lyrics to a song
that Utah Phillips sang in February at Winterfolk 17, "Ship's
Gonna Sail Someday." By way of introducing it, he told a
story about his experience helping to start a Peace Center in
his home town, Nevada City. The day after the last presidential election,
the peace organizers came into a general
meeting to discuss what went wrong, and they were "draggin'
their tails . . .just so depressed . . . it was so awful, some
people dissolved into tears. And I just couldn't let that
happen," he said.
He got fired up and reminded the group that early
organizers like Mother Jones and Joe Hill who had fought for
women's rights in the 40s, for the 8 hour-day, and for safe
working conditions, had all had to fight year after year: "It
took a long time. We're in it for a long haul, it's not as simple
as a change of administration, but a systemic change, the way
that we do things, the way that we use our lives, the way that
we use our labor.
"And there's a lot of loose talk: 'I'm gonna go to Canada!
I'm gonna go to New Zealand!' And I think about those
women in the Lawrence textile strike, in 1912, immigrant
women . . . dying at the average age of 26 because of dust in
the weave rooms. Did they walk away from it, did they go
back to Canada, to their homelands? No sir, they fought, and
they organized, and they won . . . We can win! We can win!
"And then I got them all singing that song . . . and I
wanna sing it, especially now. About Sojourner Truth, and Joe
Hill, and Eugene Deb . . . They were all building a ship: a nail
here, a plank here. None of them ever believed they were
gonna sail on that ship, but it was no excuse to not build it.
When they got too old to do that anymore, they passed the
tools and the skills on to the younger ones, and they kept on
building. And those tools and skills got passed on to us. And
someday that ship is gonna sail. It will!"

SOMEDAY THAT SHIP GONNA SAIL
(U. Utah Phillips)

Sojourner Truth said, "Ain't I a woman?"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Mother Jones said, "No child labor!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Joe Hill said, "Don't mourn, organize."
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Gene Deb (Debs) said, "Well, While there's a soul in prison!" (union leader Eugene V. Debs?)
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

We're working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Marie (Maurice) Sugar said, "Sit down, sit down!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Paul Robeson said, "I won't stop singin!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Malcolm X said, "Power to the people!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

We're working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Cesar Chavez said, "Viva la Huelga!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Dorothy Day said, "Swords into plowshares!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Judy Barry (Judi Bari) said, "No compromise!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Daniel Berrigan [or Phil] said, "No more atom bombs!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

They're all gone, and we're still building,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
With hand and heart, and mind and muscle.
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Article by Orion Gray, www.sistersoftheroad.org/images/2005_Spring.pdf

---

Note from Joe Offer: this transcription contains some mistakes. Some were from the transcriber, and some were most probably mistakes made by Utah Phillips. I've corrected the more glaring mistakes above. For clarification, see the discussion below.
2 November 2010

Subject: Lyr Add: SINGING THROUGH THE HARD TIMES (Phillips)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 03:13 AM

I couldn't find the CD booklet since I put all my recordings on my hard drive, so I had to do a by-ear transcription. Any corrections?
-Joe-

SINGING THROUGH THE HARD TIMES
(U. Utah Phillips)

Sometimes our living gets so dark and lonesome,
It seems like there's nothing we can do.
So we reach out to each other, and raise a song together,
And let our voices carry us through.

CHORUS:
We are singing through the hard times,
Singing through the hard times;
Working for the good times to come.
We are singing through the hard times,
Singing through the hard times;
Working for the good times to come.

And when the war clouds gather, it's so easy to get angry,
And just as hard not to be afraid;
But you know in your own heart, no matter what happens,
You just can't turn your back and walk away.
CHORUS

So hand in hand together, we help each other carry
The light of peace within us every day;
If we can learn to live it, to walk and talk and give it,
That world of peace won't be so far away.
CHORUS (twice)

From the Utah Phillips tribute CD, Singing Through the Hard Times, produced by Mudcatters Dan Schatz and Kendall and Jacqui Morse.

---

And here's a YouTube Video of the song, with a lot of familiar faces...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 10:53 PM

Here's what Utah was quoting from in SOMEDAY THAT SHIP GONNA SAIL, verse 4:

From Walls and Bars by Eugene Victor Debs (Chicago: Socialist Party, 1927), page 11:

MY PRISON CREED.

While there is a lower class I am in it;
While there is a criminal element I am of it;
While there's a soul in prison I am not free.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 11:18 PM

Bruce's son Duncan is working on a new edition of the songbook with some additional material - it should be out early next year if all goes well.

Dan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: kendall
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:28 AM

If anyone should ask me what I have done to make this a better world, I will say, helping to produce a double CD of Utah Phillips' songs.
It is available from Righteous Babe records, and it is one I will not lend.
Buy it; you will be glad you did.

Subject: Canyon Del Perro (Dog Canyon) - Utah Phillips
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 07:51 PM

Bob Clayton and Pete Kraemer ("Sidekicks") did a fine rendition of this song (complete with a small lyric memory lapse on one verse) at this year's Getaway. If given their permission, I will make the video available on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,Greg Artzner of MAGPIE
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 05:17 PM

Joe Jencks asked about this through Local 1000. Here is the email I sent him.

Hi Joe,
We know that song. Heard Utah sing it at Champlain Valley in '05 and beseeched him for it.

Went to the Mudcat link and there are some errors in the lyric there. I have made corrections below

One important correction that runs throughout is that the "call and response" is a set response, and line 2 is different from line 4 in each verse
The first response is
"Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday."
The second response is
"Ship gonna sail someday"

The Mudcat transcription has "Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday" every time. That's not right.

Then the "Workin' on a ship" part is the chorus, always ending with "Gonna build it anyway."

For our rendition we added
"John Brown said, "Let our motto be action" right at the beginning.

Dan Schatz added, at the end:

"Utah Phillips said, "Singing through the hard times,"
        Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
"Working for the good times" and "One Big Union"
        Ship gonna sail someday.
–Greg & Terry

http://www.magpiemusic.com

SOMEDAY THAT SHIP GONNA SAIL
(U. Utah Phillips)

Sojourner Truth said, "Ain't I a woman?"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Mother Jones said, "No child labor!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Joe Hill said, "Don't mourn, organize."
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Gene Deb said, "Well, there's a soul in prison!" (union leader Eugene V. Debs?)
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
       correction: Yes it IS Gene Debs, not "Deb" And it's not "Well" it's "While there's a soul in prison..."
We're working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Marie Sugar said, "Sit down, sit down!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
correction: Maurice Sugar, not Marie. Sugar was a famous Union attorney in the early 20th century

Paul Robeson said, "I won't stop singin!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Martin Luther said, "I have a dream!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
correction: Make sure you say, "Martin Luther KING". Luther was a different preacher altogether.

Malcolm X said, "Power to the people!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

We're working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Cesar Chavez said, "Viva la Huelga!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Dorothy said, "Swords into plowshares!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
correction: It's "Dorothy Day"

Judy Barry said, "No compromise!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
correction: It's just the spelling, but it Bari, not Barry

Daniel Berrigan said, "No more atom bombs!"
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

They're all gone, and we're still building,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
With hand and heart, and mind and muscle.
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday

Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday
Working on a ship, may never sail on it,
Gonna build it anyway.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 01:29 PM

Actually, doing the "ship gonna sail someday" only once is my way of singing it. Utah did sing "Ship gonna sail, gonna sail someday" both times. I also added "Ella Baker said, 'We will not rest.'" It's a song you can tweak for any given occasion.

Dan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 09:55 PM

Hi, Greg -
Thanks for posting. At the time I posted the lyrics, I was going from what I found on another Website. I had heard the song in concert, but couldn't find a recording. Today I found a recording on a 2006 compilation album called Hail to the Thieves, Volume III: Songs to take our country back!. Using your corrections and what I hear, I've added corrections to my post above. Thanks for the help.

-Joe Offer, Colfax, California-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 12:27 PM

I think 'Ship Gonna Sail' is a masterpiece. I first heard Bruce sing it at the Champlain folk fest in 2005. I was able to visit with him when he was in Saratoga after that, and asked him for the words. He said he would send it to me, as well as the introduction. Bruce's introductions were composed as carefully as his songs, and I believe he wanted the intro performed with the song. I have performed this few times, first at his remembrance at Old Songs a few years ago, and found the audience responds to the intro as well as the song. Here is the text of the recitation I put together for the intro, which is a combination of the sister's of the road article and the live recording. I sure miss Bruce, and this is a song for our and all times.

"They were starting a peace center in Nevada City, where Bruce lived. The day after the last presidential election, the Peace organizers came into a general meeting to discuss what went wrong, and they were draggin' their tails, just so depressed. It was so awful. Some people dissolved into tears. There was a lot of loose talk, I'm gonna go to Canada, I'm gonna go to New Zealand. Bruce just couldn't let that happen. He thought back on old Fred Thompson, the editor of The Industrial Worker. The man did hard time at San Quentin federal prison as a political prisoner for the IWW. Fred talked about the first World War, and the espionage act and the mass deportations without any due process, and the 5,000 union brothers and sisters in jail, the beatings, the lynchings, he said worse than anything we're going through right now see, but we still came out of it with the structure of the 8 hour day, mine safety laws, child labor laws, and you roll on up into the Great Depression, grinding oppression, I mean right down on the bottom, but you have the birth of the CIO, and the progressive movement, and what came out of that awful time: Social Security, workmen's compensation, minimum wage, unemployment insurance, things unheard of anywhere, You come up through the War and into McCarthy times, the Red Scare, Korea and the beginning of the cold war when they tried to destroy the labor movement completely, and we came out of that, we did, and we survived. We came out of that with the civil rights movement that worked, and the largest peace movement that the country has ever seen. So knowing that, I know that we're going to get through what we're going through now, and we're going to come out of it better and stronger and you can count on it.

We've got a lot of help, we've got a lot of help to do that you know. When you think back down that road, we got people like Sojourner Truth, and Mother Jones, remember Mother Jones? The miner's mother lived to be 100. Mother Jones in Philadelphia, speaking at a mill, and they brought little kids to her, the workers with parts of their hands missing, cut off by the machines, scalped, hair caught in the machines that pulled their scalps off. She flew into a rage, went down to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and said, "We've got to expose this!" and the editor said we can't do it because the people that own the mill own the paper. Hasn't changed much has it? Did she write a letter to her congressman? Did she start a petition? No, she got 100 of those kids together and marched with their parents and chaperones, marched overland 100 miles to New York City, caught the ferry across to Long Island, and those kids camped on President Theodore Roosevelt's lawn to embarrass him into coming out in favor of child labor laws. Direct action gets the goods. And Eugene V. Debs, who founded the Socialist Party of the United States. I love the man. There was never a man more loved in this country than Eugene V. Debs. There in court, telling the judge as he was on his way to jail for objecting to the First World War as a bosses' war. He looked at the judge and said, "While there is a lower class I am in it. While there is a criminal class I am of it. While there is a soul in prison I am not free." And on up to Maurice Sugar and the sit-down strikes of the 1930's in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and on and on.

These people, I see them as building a boat. They were building a ship, and none of them believed that they would ever sail on it, but that was no excuse not to build it. When they got too old, and broken, too tired to build any more on that ship, they passed the tools and the skills on to the younger ones, and they kept building the boat, and now those tools are passed on to our times. They are in our hands, and we keep building that boat. When our turn comes, we'll pass those tools along, and someday that ship is gonna sail. Some day that ship is gonna sail to a world of economic justice and peace. You can count on that too."

Then sing the song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: MikeT
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 12:32 PM

oops, that last post was from me, I didn't realize I wasn't signed in.

Mike

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST,Dave Sweetapple
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 03:44 PM

The Utah Phillips song, Dog Canyon (Canyon Del Pero) is not that far from the truth. I live n Dog Canyon and just a short two mile jaunt from my place is the ruins of Old Frency's cabin. He did in fact shoot a man over water rights.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 10:53 AM

I dedicated my CD Last Train Out to the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest, Utah Phillips. RIP.

---

As stated below, poster appears to be Arkansas Red.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: kendall
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:47 PM

And you are?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: deepdoc1
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 02:43 PM

Might it be Arkansas Red?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Aug 17 - 03:12 AM

What's the publication date of "Singing Through the Hard Times"? Did Utah Phillips ever record it? When?

I did find a performance by Utah Phillips on A Prairie Home Companion in 2003.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Aug 17 - 01:20 AM

Somehow, our publisher Hal Leonard got 1975 for the publication date of the song, "Singing Through the Hard Times," and that's the date in our Rise Again Songbook. A friend from Nevada City (California) thinks the song is more recent. He remembers Utah saying it was a brand-new song he wrote for the homeless shelter in Nevada City. I found a performance of the song by Utah on a 2003 episode of Prairie Home Companion. Does anyone have access to anything that would give firm information about the publication date?
Thanks.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips
From: Mark Ross
Date: 18 Aug 17 - 06:09 PM

Joe, that would have been around the time he wrote it. Actually, he wrote the words, Paul Kamm & Eleanor MacDonald put it a tune to it.

Mark Ross