Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song

Subject: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Songs
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 04:08 PM

Back in November PBS had an excellent series about the history of New York City. One of it's darkest chapters involved the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Many dozens of young immigrant workers died as a result of the owners locking the fire escapes and exits in order to make the workers "more productive". Many jumped to their deaths rather than be burned alive.

So far I haven't found any songs relating to this event. I would think that there would be some. It has all the elements : tragic deaths, callous management, peventable circumstances, ect. There was a commission that resulted from this that went on to change working conditions for garment workers in New York City.

Does anyone know of any songs that came out of this tragedy?? If there aren't any there should be- IMHO. Let me know - Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: MMario
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 04:25 PM

This isn't very helpful, but somewhere in the depths of my fever ridden brain I seem to recall this discussion happening before. I have no access to super-search at the moment, and the old search engine didn't show anything, but it can't search the body, only titles....

MMario

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 10:40 PM

hi- There's a much later song (1960's as I recall) about the fire; I haven't been able to find any contemporaneous to the event. Possibly there's one or more in Yiddish?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 12:08 AM

I don't exactly have an answer for you, but I have a source you might try to find. The ILGWU began publishing its own song book in 1935, and by 1973 had published at least a half dozen editions. The 1931 edition, called "Everybody Sings" has 30 garment workers songs.

Another possible resource is the conference on labor songs held every year in late June in DC. I have a friend who goes to this, if you'd like more info.

Perhaps Joe Hickerson, or another librarian at the Library of Congress could help.

Good luck. You're right-it is a great topic for a song.

Mary McCaffrey

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: GUEST,Jake
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 01:24 AM

Ruth Rubin wrote a song, The Ballad of the Triangle Fire, in 1968. It's in the DT.

Jake

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: InOBU
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 08:36 AM

Every year, on the anniversary, there is a joint, Fire department and massed trade union memorial on the corner. If any one is in New York on that day, it is a must to go to. The most poignant I attended was the year that a similar event happened in the Carolinas, in a locked down Chicken processing plant, where numerous workers burned to death. One of the survivors spoke at the Triangle memorial and it brought an sense of the moment to those who go every year.
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: GUEST,buskerjoe
Date: 28 Feb 10 - 09:40 AM

pete seeger's book, "Carry It On! (a history in song and picture of the working men and women of america)" has "the ballad of the triangle fire" on pp. 87. i don't read music, so i haven't yet been able to decipher the melody. once i do i'll begin sharing this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:40 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:43 AM

We almost did this song at a workshop on the Industrial Revolution but instead we opted for the poem we posted on this thread.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TRIANGLE FIRE (John O'Connor)
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Oct 10 - 05:29 PM

I wrote a song on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the tragedy, after reading Leon Stein's history and a book of poems called "Fragments From the Fire" by Chris Llewellyn. It's available on my CD, "We Aint Gonna Give It Back - Songs for the Labor Movement", order info found at my website, johnpauloconnor.com

THE TRIANGLE FIRE
(John O'Connor)

Come gather around and I'll sing you a song
Of a sight that I saw long ago
The weather was fair down in Washington Square
It was spring, I was on my way home.

It was 1911 on March 25
I remember as if yesterday
At the Triangle Shirtwaist Company
Where the girls were all waiting to pick up their pay

Chorus:
Fire was the cry from the windows up high
I saw but I could not believe
Two girls on the ledged as they jumped from the edge
Into the arms of eternity

On the eighth and the ninth and the tenth floor
This factory of workers in the garment trade
Stuffed them into the rooms where so many were doomed
At the end of the sabbath day.

The doors were all locked and the fire escapes weak
The whole building was trap and a peril
Just to make a few bucks from the rich runamoks
Who made money from the lives of young girls.

Repeat Chorus

What choice for a young girl of sixteen or so
But the sweatshop for the shirtwaists they sell
And what choice for a soul in a ten-story hole
But the pavement of the fires of hell.

Now the questions still loom in the workshops and rooms
And the question I will pose it to you
When you stand to defend all these captalists and their friends
What price for the profits of few?

Final Chorus:

And murder I'll cry till the day that I die
For I saw but could not believe
Two girls on the ledge as they jumped from the ledge
Into the arms of eternity.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 04:03 AM

On his Loafer's Glory radio program, Utah Phillips played John O'Connor's song titled "Triangle Fire" (lyrics posted by John above). You can find the recording on this link (right-click to download - the song is about 21 minutes into the program. If that link doesn't work, try this menu.

You can find "Triangle Fire" and other information about John in Joe Glazer's autobiography, Labor's Troubadour (University of Illinois Press, 2001), page 250

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Feb 11 - 12:52 AM

100 Years Later, the Roll of the Dead in a Factory Fire Is Complete - in the NY Times: the last six victims, 5 women and 1 man, have finally been identified.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: DebC
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 09:02 PM

I plan on singing John's song at the Bacca Pipes Folk Club in Keighley, UK on March 25, 2011-on the 100th anniversary.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 09:04 PM

Was there possibly a song about it in Yiddish?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 07:29 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Song
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 12:35 PM

100 years ago today. The Cornell University International Labor Relations School has an online exhibit: here.

NPR posted this cartoon with a quote from Arlo Guthrie on the topic of unions: here.

~ Becky in Long Beach