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Re: OT: Joe Hill

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Sunday, December 23, 2001, 21:44
>> -----Original Message----- >> From: Joe Hill >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "The Gray Wizard" >> >> >> > Old fogies reference and apropos of nothing - >> > >> > I find myself totally unable to read a post from Joe without >> singing in my >> > head: >> > >> > I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night >> > Alive as you and me. >> > Said I, but Joe, you're ten years dead. >> > I never died said he >> > I never died said he >> > >> > Sorry!
>> Never heard that, what is it, and who's it by? > >No, you wouldn't have heard of him unless you were at least as old as I am >(58) and grew up in a radical tradition. Joe Hill, also known as Joseph >Hilstrom, but whose real name was Joel Emmanuel Haggland, was executed for >murder in 1915. He was an organizer for a radical labor organization
called
>the IWW (International Workers of the World) better known as the
"Wobblies".
>He became something of a legend, either labor hero or criminal, depending
on
>whether you read the labor press or police reports. In a message from his >death row cell, Joe Hill sent a telegram to fellow Wobbly "Big Bill" >Haywood. The message would become a rallying cry for protestors for >generations to come: "Don't waste time mourning. Organize!" > >The song was written by Alfred Hayes sometime in the late '30s and sung by
a
>number of people thereafter including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Joan >Baez. Such were the legends of my youth. >
Ah, yes. I had the same association, and thought perhaps (Conlang) Joe Hill might be a pseudonym......In college days (a bit earlier than you, even) we got into Labor songs, Spanish Civil War songs-- the idea of a bunch of snotty Harvard kids sitting around singing these things is rather startling. Oddly enough, we also got a peculiar frisson from a recording of Nazi marching songs. The power of music!

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The Gray Wizard <dbell@...>