JOHN
McCUTCHEON
Joe
Hill’s Last Will
Appalsongs
Joe
Hill (1879-1915) is a legendary figure in the history
of folk music and the labor movement. A Swedish immigrant (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund),
he immigrated to the United States in 1902 and learned to speak English as a
migrant laborer. Sometime around 1910, Hill joined the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW), the Wobblies, a union that believes in industrial
unionization, “One Big Union,” as opposed to trade unionism, and began to write
songs for them – often set to tunes borrowed from popular songs of the day. In
some ways, Woody Guthrie followed in
Hill’s footsteps a generation later.
In 1914, Hill was arrested in Salt Lake
City, Utah for a murder he did not commit, and was tried and convicted. He was
executed by firing squad on November 19, 1915 at the age of 36.
Like many of my generation, I initially
learned about Joe Hill from the song written about him in the 1930s by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson via recordings by Paul Robeson and recordings and performances in the ‘60s by Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Much of what I know about Joe Hill, though, came from another
great Wobblie songwriter, my late friend Bruce
“Utah” Phillips, who I heard sing many of Joe Hill’s songs, and tell many
stories about him, over a period of many years.
This year is the 100th anniversary of Hill’s
execution and John McCutcheon marks
the occasion with Joe Hill’s Last Will,
an inspired and inspiring collection of Joe Hill songs – a couple of which I’m
hearing for the first time on this CD, others which I know from recordings by such
artists as Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Cisco
Houston, and Hazel Dickens.
One of the astounding things that hits home
about these songs is the so very brief period in which they were created. The
earliest is from 1911 and the latest from 1915 – just a four year period. But,
although these songs date from a century and more ago and are essentially topical
songs, most – particularly with John’s infectious and creative arrangements –
seem relevant to the (economic) times we’re living in now.
While the entire album is entirely
praiseworthy, some of the finest moments include “It’s a Long Way to the Soup
Line,” a song Hill wrote in prison in 1915 to the tune of “It’s a Long Way to
Tipperary”; “The Preacher & the Slave,” a parody of “In the Sweet Bye and
Bye,” that Hill used to mock the Salvation Army (the “Starvation Army”) and
their brass bands that were used back in the day to disrupt IWW rallies; and the
rousing finale, “There is Power in the Union,” on which John is joined by a
bunch of fellow workers from the American Federation of Musicians, Local 1000
(the folksingers' local), and the Seattle
Labor Chorus.
Certainly the most moving song is the title
track, “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” whose words Hill wrote the day before his
execution and which were smuggled out of the prison by a guard.
My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kind don't need to fuss and moan –
“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.”
For there is nothing to divide.
My kind don't need to fuss and moan –
“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.”
My body? Ah, If I could
choose,
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower
then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will.
Good luck to all of you.
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will.
Good luck to all of you.
Joe Hill
“Joe Hill’s Last Will” has been set to
music several times over the years – I have a bluegrass version on the
collaborative 1976 album by Country
Cooking and the Fiction Brothers – but John’s lovely version is to a
melody of his own. (I’ve also heard it performed as recitation by both Utah
Phillips and the late Tex König.)
I’ll also note that a couple of the songs, “Overalls
& Snuff,” and “Where the Fraser River Flows,” are of special Canadian
interest as they were written for the strike against the Canadian National
Railroad in 1912.
An essential recording and an excellent companion to John's Woody Guthrie tribute, This Land: Woody Guthrie's America.
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--Mike
Regenstreif
