Musical Interlude: Joe Hill

Labor Day

Not enough people these days know of Joe Hill (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, 1879-1915). He still stops by the Holler now and then. Hill was a Wobbly organizer and wrote many of the songs in their famous book of tunes, The Big Red Song Book. He was a self-described ‘Catholic Anarchist;’ are there still any of those around?

Unfortunately, Joe got in the way of the Utah copper mine operators, in which the leaders of the Church of Latter-Day Saints leadership were heavily invested and in Utah, that’s bad business. He was judicially murdered on November 19, 1915. Joe refused to provide an alibi to exonerate himself of the murder for which he was framed. He was apparently in the arms of his sweet love, whom he refused to name. Decades later, a letter originally written by said sweetheart in 1949 came to light confirming Joe’s would-have-been alibi. A Wobbly and a Gentleman.

Under Utah law, Joe was executed by firing squad.

To their credit, The Salt Lake Tribune produced a number of renditions of Joe Hill songs for the 100th anniversary of his death. Here are some of them:

The Preacher and the Slave

There is Power in a Union

We Will Sing One Song

Nearer My Job to Thee

The Rebel Girl

And Paul Robeson’s equally immortal, and much covered, Joe Hill

Shortly after Hill’s death, the entire US Justice Department and other agencies of the Federal Government were set upon the I.W.W. With their militant syndicalism and cries for ‘one big union,’ you just couldn’t do business with them as you could with the AFL and the CIO.

Reportedly, Martin Luther wrote hymns to the tunes of beerhall songs so the congregants would already know the tune. Joe wrote many of his union songs to the tunes of popular church and revival hymns for similar reasons; just in the opposite direction.

Happy Labor Day!