Celebrating Labor Day

For many of us, the first Monday of September signifies the end of summer and the start of another school year. We forget that the day was established to honor the contributions of hard-working folks. In the aftermath of the notorious 1884 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland hoped to encourage political rapprochement with Labor by pushing through legislation making Labor Day a national holiday. Another motivation for establishing Labor Day in September was to distance it from May Day, which had already become identified as “International Worker’s Day.” In the U.S., we turned May 1st into “Loyalty Day.” And if all of this is sounding as familiar to you as it is to me, it’s because I posted something about it back in May to accompany a video of Merle Haggard in honor of May Day.

To celebrating the people who put the "work" in "workmanlike," I selected a few of my favorite pro-labor tunes, starting with the man hisself, Mr. Pete Seeger (may he win a Nobel Prize someday) singing “Which Side are You On?”



Let's look at that one from another angle; this is Natalie Merchant’s haunting version, which starts off with Florence Reece who wrote the song in 1930.



Now, here's Woody Guthrie singing “All of You Fascists Are Bound to Lose.” That's Sonny Terry on harmonica and providing the accompanying whoops and hollers). I suppose it's not strictly a union song, but he does talk about folks organizing.



Then there's Billy Bragg with his interpretation of the Guthrie tune:



I'll close with The Strawbs singing “Part of the Union” in 1973. The Strawbs formed in England in 1964 as a bluegrass band known as the Strawberry Hill Boys. In their early days, they accompanied Sandy Denny who went on to become a member of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay.

Nobel Prize for Pete Seeger?

One of the more touching scenes from recent Inaugural events was the concert at the Lincoln Memorial. For members of the Mighty Toy Cannon household, the highlight was the appearance of a hale and hearty Pete Seeger, singing "This Land is Your Land," including Woody Guthrie's more leftist verses.

The man deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, there is a movement and a website dedicated to getting Mr. Seeger that nomination. You can read more about that and about Seeger in this Huffington Post article. I also recommend the 2007 documentary, "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" if you get a chance.

My father-in-law is a delightfully warm, gregarious and caring man of whom I am quite fond--even though he is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. The irony is that he's also a huge Pete Seeger fan from way back. His love of belting out folk tunes with family and friends must overshadow all dissonance with Seeger's politics. His children and grandchildren have turned out to be liberals--some flaming more than others--perhaps due to having listened to "Union Maid" too many times.

YouTube has a treasure trove of videos from Pete Seeger's public TV show "Rainbow Quest," which was aired regionally (I'm presuming upstate New York) in the mid-60s. You can find at least a dozen videos from the show including guests such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee; Richard and Mimi Farina; Jean Ritchie; Elizabeth Cotton; Mississippi John Hurt ... oh man, I'm going to have to get busy posting some of these!

This is one of my favorite videos. It starts with Pete introducing his guests, Johnny Cash and June Carter. Johnny then sings the "I am a Pilgrim" by the great Merle Travis. (Which reminds me to dig up some Merle clips for a later post). Johnny seems remarkably twitchy throughout this episode of "Rainbow Quest." I assume he's either high or itching to get so--keep an eye on his Beatle-boot clad feet.