Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories

Subject: Lyr Req: songs about women- sewing factories&hospi
From: bfolkemer
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 07:17 PM

Hi everyone,

I'm searching for songs about women who worked in sewing factories. The historical period I'm most interested in is around 1920, but older stuff will certainly do. Songs from the U.S. are better for the program we've been asked to do, but I'm not going to be too picky. I do have the "Jute Mill Song," which I could adapt, but it would be nice to get a little closer to the theme. Songs about women working in sweat shops, factories, etc., might also work. I'm also looking for songs that might relate to a character who founded the local hospital at about the same time.

Thanks very much!

Beth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,AArk
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 07:23 PM

Will "the Weaver and the Factory Maid" do?

Its in the Digitrad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:03 PM

there is one that Rebel Voices I think that is about the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist?? Factory...mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: JedMarum
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:17 PM

STREETS OF FALL RIVER is about a man who worked his life in the textile mills of southern New England. Probably not a fit to what you're looking for - but may be a first cousin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:46 PM

Not sure if your "Jute Mill Song" is the same as Sheena Wellington's "Women of Dundee" but it's about the jute mills of Dundee
Also there's Ewan McVicar's song "Working in the Mill", more about spinning thread than sewing.
Tattie B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:53 PM

In The Weaving Room

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:57 PM

Babies In The Mill
Weave Room Blues
both by Dorsey Dixon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 08:58 PM

Poverty Knock

These are all about weavers. Does that help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:17 PM

Ballad of the Triangle Fire
^^^ By Ruth Rubin

In the heart of New York City, near Washington Square
In nineteen eleven, March winds were cold and bare.
A fire broke out in a building ten stories high,
And a hundred and forty-six young girls in those flames did die.

On the top floor of that building, ten stories in the air
These young girls were working in an old sweatshop there;
They were sewing shirtwaists for a very low wage.
So tired and pale and worn-out! They were at a tender age.

The sweatshop was a stuffy room with but a single door;
The windows they were gray with dust from off that dirty floor;
There were no comforts, no fresh air, no light to sew thereby,
And the girls, they toiled from early morn till darkness filled the sky.

Then on that fateful day ? dear God, most terrible of days!
When that fire broke out, it grew into a mighty blaze.
In that firetrap way up there with but a single door,
So many innocent working girls burned, to live no more!

A hundred thousand mourners, they followed those sad biers.
The streets were filled with people weeping bitter tears.
Poets, writers everywhere described that awful pyre,
When those young girls were trapped to die in the Triangle Fire.

© 1968 Ruth Rubin

from the Sing Along Songbook, 1993 UCLEA NE Summer Institute for Union Women, New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1993.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:22 PM

OOPS. Sorry, Joe. That is in the DT with a MIDI for the tune. Type in"sewing" in the search box.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:25 PM

"The Ballad of the triangle Fire, Ruth Rubin, already is in the DT.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: Cluin
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:31 PM

Look for the Union label...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: pattyClink
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:33 PM

The New Doffing Mistress or "Doffin' Mistress" in the DT, is about some fabric finishing women who get a new forewoman they do not like. Great melody and chorus.

DM in the DT

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 09:39 PM

Two years ago, in thread 17231, someone was looking for chords to the Ballad of the Triangle Fire. Anyone have them? The DT has a midi, but not available at this time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Sandy Paton
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 10:59 PM

"Weaver's Reverie" is a great song by Bob Coltman about the mills in Massachusetts. It's sung by Ed Trickett (with Cathy Barton, Dave Para, Harry Tuft, and Sandy & Caroline Paton) on "For All the Good People" -- Folk-Legacy CD-121.
    Sandy (sans cookie)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Sandy again
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 11:08 PM

I should also mention "Cotton Mill Blues" by Si Kahn. It's sung by Ed Trickett on his newly available "made to order" CD-92 titled "People Like You." This is one of the thirty older Folk-Legacy releases now ready to be provided to individual customers as CDs. We're working on even more -- mastering them as quickly as we can, and producing them, a few at a time, here in our own studio. Write to me, or call 800-836-0901, if you'd like to know what's available now. I don't even have them on the web site yet!
    Sandy ([e-mail])

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 11:15 PM

oh yes..how can we forget Cotton Mill girls..not about sewing but an all time great song. And Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot. mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 11:35 PM

Anne Hills I think wrote one about silk mills..the workers of Allentown? I heard Sue Postans et al on Virgo Rising do it.

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: nutty
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 02:06 AM

I know that the "Song of the Shirt"by Thomas Hood? was posted in a thread not too long ago but am not able to find it through 'forum search'. Can anyone else help????

Subject: Lyr Add: WEAVER'S REVERIE
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 02:40 AM

Sandy and Sinsull both mentioned my favorite, "WEAVER'S REVERIE." Below are the lyrics with some notes by Dave Para. Sandy's recording that he mentions is simply beautiful of this poignant and haunting song.

Ed learned this song while visiting Bob Coltman a few years ago at his home in South Chelmsford, MA. While researching the history of nearby Lowell, Bob found a bit of prose written by Harriet Farley which appeared in the Lowell Offering, a mill newsletter printed in 1841. Much of the song comes from that prose, and Bob says that the first verse is almost verbatim. He wrote the song in 1989, "in a matter of minutes." ..............Dave Para

*********************************************************************

^^ WEAVER'S REVERIE

Where the weaver stands to work, she can scarcely see the sky
The songs of the sparrow can't be heard.
The golden sunlight out the dirty window shines;
She turns to her weaving without a word.

Slap go the belts against the pulleys;
Shuttles fly across the loom.
There are hours to go, and they never go so slow
As they go in the weaving room.

I think on nature as the hungry think on food;
Without it, I've solitary grown.
But in this restless place, every loom, every face,
Tell me, how can I ever be alone?

It could be worse; I suppose I might be
A dresser sizing the yarn.
So hot and so wet and the lint in the air
I'm sure that my lungs would come to harm.

Oh, yes, as jobs go, it is a very good job;
Few finer for a woman can be found.
But this cannot be the end for which womankind was made
'Twixt the cradle and the green, grassy mound.

I tire of the noise; there are too few joys.
I am drawn to the window and the sky.
But "Your looms are going without filling," says a voice,
And I run to change my shuttles on the fly.

*******************************************************************

Spaw

Subject: Lyr Add: SEWING MACHINES (Nancy White)
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 04:30 AM

SEWING MACHINES^^
(by Nancy White)

She came to Toronto with her husband and her baby
Looking for the good life, streets paved with gold
Freedom of expression and a chicken in the pot
She hoped she wouldn't mind the legendary cold
He went to language school to learn a little English
They told her he'd need it more than she ever will
As soon as she had learned to say Hello, Goodbye and Thankyou
she was working on Spadina in a textile mill

(chorus)
Sewing machines, sewing machines, Is that what freedom means?
Sewing machines, sewing machines, Is that what freedom means?

She gets up at five and puts the house in order
Makes the lunch and breakfast, I takes the children to her neighbour
Five to eight she clocks and goes to her machine
Then it's thirteen hours of hard, hard labour
He doesn't like her working but he doesn't help at home
Men didn't do that in the old country
And he goes out with friends, his wife's no longer fun
She's always too tired to love him properly

(chorus)

(bridge)
Whatever happened to my Maria?
The shiny haired girl with the sparkling eyes
I brought her here to this new land of plenty
But she just won't Canadian-ize
She doesn't learn English like the children and me
She's always too tired but I think she's lazy
Whatever happened to my Maria?
I miss the light in her eye

The factory is filthy, the wages are the lowest
Sometimes talk of a union makes a stir
But the boss just says, "Do you want to be deported?"
She doesn't understand that he can't do that to her
And so she works her life away without too much complaint
After all, she got here; one of the lucky ones
She sacrifices dignity, youth, health, and love
To make a decent future for her daughter and her son

(chorus)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:38 AM

Cotton Mill Colic (as opposed to C M Girls) - it's in the DT too.

Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers - by Darewski and Weston (1914) is also in the DT.

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:51 AM

there's also the Lowell Factory Girl lament (I have Peggy Seeger singing it on an LP) and the Ella Mae Wiggins' Mill Mother's lament ... versions of them are in Jerry Silverman's "The Liberated Woman's Songbook" Collier Books, 1971 - haven't checked to see if they're already in the DT though ...

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: cetmst
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:52 AM

In a previous thread - Mayn Ru'e Platz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:58 AM

there's some about the Belfast shirt factory too!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,maire-aine at work
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 09:25 AM

Two songs come to my mind: BREAD & ROSES is one. The second one is a Si Kahn song called WHEN THE LAND AND THEY WERE YOUNG. It has a verse that goes "Young women fleeing Cossack raids, brought strong work-hardened hands, to run the mills and factories of a new and growing land. They gave their hands to strange machines, their lips to foreign tongues. They gave their youth to sweatshops when the land and they were young."

Subject: Lyr Add: WOMEN OF DUNDEE (Sheena Wellington)
From: GUEST,Mikey joe
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 09:56 AM

From the DT:


WOMEN OF DUNDEE
(Sheena Wellington)

Now the men they werena lazy, but the work was hard tae find
The Parish and the Means Test they'd to face,
But a lassie"s hands are nimble, and a lassie's wage is sma
So the women o Dundee worked in their place.

Cho: And the wailin o the bummer and the clackin o the laims
Brought the women o Dundee oot o their bed
And they walked tae mills and factories
And they rocht frae seevin tae fehv
And the women kept the bairns o Dundee fed

Now my mither an my granny an my aunties ain and a'
Went tae the laims the day they left the skail
They didna work for freedom, independence or the rest
They jist worked tae get some kitchen tae their kail.

Now the rhythm o their livin was the clackin o the laims
Their youth an health an strength was lost tae jait
But the weavers and the spinners and the winders o Dundee
Had a spirit that the hard times never bait.

Now you may boast a noble lineage and sing of your Highland clan
And hail some gallant chief who shares your name
But my line's as good as any and I'm very proud tae say
It was fae a Dundee weaver that I came.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: JennyO
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 10:00 AM

A bit of background to BREAD AND ROSES - we sing this in the Solidarity Choir. There are two different tunes. We sing the Mimi Farina one. It can all be found in the DT.

By the beginning of the twentieth century the industrialisation of Western Europe and the USA was bringing new social and political movements into world history. Trade Unions were making headway in a grim struggle to win for working people a fairer share of the benefits of industrialisation, and women too began to organise and campaign for their right to vote, and to earn a decent living from their work. Like today, many women were employed in the textile industry for very low wages.

In 1912 during a massive strike in Lawrence Massachusetts a woman mill-worker carried a placard which read "We Want Bread! And Roses Too!!". The strike not only won important concessions from the wool companies, it also inspired James Oppenheim to write the poem "Bread And Roses".

Jenny

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

The Anne Hills song mentioned above is Silken dreams, and although she sings it beautifully, I think she did not write it. In any event, it is posted in a thread with her name in the title (use Filter Search, with 2 years for age), and perhaps someone whose computer is working properly (mine ain't) will find it and link to it here.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 01:38 PM

Silken Dreams, Anne Hills- thread 31856: Silken Dreams

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 04:27 PM

Song of the Shirt previously mentioned is one of my favourite poems, and I always meant to try setting it to music, but never got round to it. What do they say about procrastination being the theif of time?
I also vaguely remember Mike Harding singing a song , called I think, The Land where Cotton was King.
Giok

Subject: Lyr Add: JINNY BOBBIN
From: Trevor
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 04:40 PM

Is this any good for you?

JINNY BOBBIN

I was born on a Friday in a cotton shed
A pile of rags was my birth bed
Work was short and she'd little pay
She was back at her loom the very next day
So she called me Jinny Bobbin

When I was five I went to school
Earn your keep was the golden rule
The shadow of the mill was laid
Across the schoolyard where we played
And they called me Jinny Bobbin

When I was twelve I went in t'mill
Bins of bobbins I'd to fill
I was small but I did it with a will
And they called me Jinny Bobbin

At eighteen I'd four looms to keep
I paid me way from week to week
I met me lad as I danced one May
And he danced and danced me heart away
And he called me Jinny Bobbin

We were walking out for nearly a year
Times were good and I'd nowt to fear
Then I found meself in the family way
And I wed me lad one bright summer's day
And he smiled on Jinny Bobbin

The bairns came with the passing years
Then the war changed our smiles to tears
The lads came marching back from France
But my lad lay where he'll no more dance
Far away from Jinny Bobbin


Now I work in't mill and me lasses too
They've bairns of their own so they have to do
And I think back of the work I've done
And I wonder where the years have gone
From the life of Jinny Bobbin

I remember the days when times were hard
And dust lay thick on the old mill yard
And I think of the faces that I've seen
That have passed away like a morning dream
Through the life of Jinny Bobbin

Now I think of the friends that I have known
Who've lived out life just like me own
And that's me story, I know it's not much
But I can tell you of many a thousand such
With lives like Jinny Bobbin
That's the life of Jinny Bobbin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:04 PM

Cotton Jenny, Gordon Lightfoot. In Cowpie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: nutty
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:00 PM

I found the thread I was looking for .......

Song of the Shirt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: bfolkemer
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 09:24 PM

Many thanks to all of you who responded!! What a wealth of material. Since there are some songs that are about stitchers (as opposed to weavers), we'll probably choose one of those. I think I'll be considering some others for general use.

Thank you again!

Beth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about women in sewing factories
From: Mad Tom
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 12:20 AM

How about Kurt Weill's "Aggie's Sewing Machine"?