"Some Flowers Grow": Songs About Fellow Worker Joe Hill

 Joe Hill is probably the most well-known figure from the Industrial Workers of the World's early history. FW Franklin Rosemont commented in his (pretty much definitive) biography, that even people who had never heard of the IWW knew of Joe Hill.

Why is this so? The short answer is Paul Robeson, one of those great figures of radical history whose reputation and career spilled over into the mainstream. (In a classic US history move that I call "sucking the politics out of things", Robeson is now so mainstream that people are mostly not aware that he was a card carrying Red).

I was impressionable, red and youthfully romantic when I first encountered Robeson and his work. I fell immediately in love, as is my historical wont. The man can only be described as magnificent: erudite, multilingual, athletic, incorruptible, handsome, charming, and oh, that voice.

All right, maybe this habit of falling for dead revolutionaries is a little weird. The point is, Paul Robeson sang "Joe Hill" (written by Earl Robinson via FW Alfred Hayes) on any number of occasions, including directly and pointedly at the Utah ruling class. My favourite recording though, is this one, where he is singing the ballad for the Australian workers who were building the Sydney Opera House.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg7bPgrosAE?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

I have an inner conflict around this ubiquitous ballad. Every leftie musician in the United States has done a version, and some of them recently too. As a historian, I love that. I also have a sentimental attachment to the ballad itself that has its origins in the May Day singalongs I participated in as a child. I suspect I found the concept of a guardian angel who watches over workers struggles comforting. However, the musical snob within me knows that Mr Robeson's version is the best one. So there.

Moving right along. The songs below come from songwriters who have written their own versions of the Joe Hill story, in no particular order:

Phil Ochs, "Joe Hill"

This is Billy Bragg's version. There's a good Joe Hill story behind it, but mainly I just love the banjo.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ellmj2KWBjI&w=420&h=315]

David Rovics, "Joe Hill"

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1792008624 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3012613992]

Otis Gibbs, "Joe Hill's Ashes"

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2428049865 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2399667156]

Mark Levy, "Joe Hill's Ashes"

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DelYnfLB0Lg]

I know. There's more. Send me examples, and I will add them to the list. These are some of my favourites, and they are just to get you started; after all, this is your history too.

first published October 6, 2015