I have always loved this song. On so very many levels.
Joe Hill was an organizer for labor rights in a time when such activities were brutally put down. He was framed for murder and executed (there was circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime but there is concrete evidence showing he did not do it). He became a martyr for the labor rights movement and the protest songs he wrote have inspired generations.
Joan Baez, “Joe Hill” live at the Woodstock Festival, 1969
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he,
“I never died” said he.
“The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
They shot you Joe” says I.
“Takes more than guns to kill a man”
Says Joe “I didn’t die”
Says Joe “I didn’t die”
And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe “What they can never kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize”
From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill,
Where working-men defend their rights,
It’s there you find Joe Hill,
It’s there you find Joe Hill!
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he,
“I never died” said he.
by Earl Robinson, Alfred Hayes, and John Loesberg
(adaptation of the poem by Hayes)
Bruce Springsteen- “Joe Hill” (Tampa, FL 05/01/14)
If you’re unfamiliar with Joe Hill and his legacy . . . from the wiki at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill . . .
“Joe Hill (October 7, 1879 – November 19, 1915), born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund and also known as Joseph Hillström, was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, familiarly called the “Wobblies”). A native Swedish speaker, he learned English during the early 1900s, while working various jobs from New York to San Francisco. Hill, an immigrant worker frequently facing unemployment and underemployment, became a popular songwriter and cartoonist for the union. His most famous songs include “The Preacher and the Slave” (in which he coined the phrase “pie in the sky”), “The Tramp”, “There Is Power in a Union”, “The Rebel Girl”, and “Casey Jones—the Union Scab”, which express the harsh and combative life of itinerant workers, and call for workers to organize their efforts to improve working conditions.
“In 1914, John G. Morrison, a Salt Lake City area grocer and former policeman, and his son were shot and killed by two men. The same evening, Hill arrived at a doctor’s office with a gunshot wound, and briefly mentioned a fight over a woman. He refused to explain further, even after he was accused of the grocery store murders on the basis of his injury. Hill was convicted of the murders in a controversial trial. Following an unsuccessful appeal, political debates, and international calls for clemency from high-profile figures and workers’ organizations, Hill was executed in November 1915. After his death, he was memorialized by several folk songs. His life and death have inspired books and poetry.
“The identity of the woman and the rival who supposedly caused Hill’s injury, though frequently speculated upon, remained mostly conjecture for nearly a century. William M. Adler’s 2011 biography of Hill presents information about a possible alibi, which was never introduced at the trial. According to Adler, Hill and his friend and countryman Otto Appelquist were rivals for the attention of 20-year-old Hilda Erickson, a member of the family with whom the two men were lodging. In a recently discovered letter, Erickson confirmed her relationship with the two men and the rivalry between them. The letter indicates that when she first discovered Hill was injured, he explained to her that Appelquist had shot him, apparently out of jealousy.”
Pete Seeger – Joe Hill
Luke Kelly Joe Hill
Joe Hill: -The Grandfather Of All Folksingers – (Billy Bragg)
Remembering Joe Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii3qwitUuL0
John McCutcheon “Joe Hill’s Last Will”
Hill was stopped from speaking out for union organizers because such speechmaking was illegal. However, when he realized the Salvation Army could sing, he began singing his union organizational messages.
Joe Hill – Pie in the Sky
Hill wanted to see and he gave the order to fire.
Joe Hill’s Execution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPdYukxbOjo
Utah Phillips covers Joe Hill’s “Pie in the Sky” “The Preacher and the Slave”
Trib Talk: The music of Joe Hill
Finding Joe Hill’s ashes
Rebel Girl by Joe Hill
We Will Sing One Song by Joe Hill
The Preacher and the Slave by Joe Hill
Nearer My Job To Thee by Joe Hill
There Is Power In A Union by Joe Hill
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