The Big Red Songbook

edited by Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger, Archie Green, and Salvatore Salerno

Publication date: February 2007
Paperback: $24.00
Hardcover: $36.00

ARCHIE GREEN HAS JUST RECEIVED THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM THE FOLKLORE CENTER OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS!

“America's foremost folklorist and the founder of ‘laborlore...and his collaborators explore the IWW song tradition with marvelous insight.’”
- Paul Buhle

Best collection of rebel workers’ songs and poems ever compiled: all the songs that appeared in the IWW’s celebrated “little red songbook” from 1909 through 1973—plus scores of others. Songs of Joe Hill, T-Bone Slim, Dick Brazier, Ralph Chaplin, “Dublin Dan” Liston, Covington Hall, John Brill and other Wobbly “greats.” For the first time anywhere, a good selection of songs by women Wobbies: Agnes Thecla Fair, Laura Payne Emerson, Sophie Fagin, Jane Street, Laura Tanne and others. Not least, songs and poems by the colorful bunch of Wob soapboxers who frequented Chicago’s Dil Pickle Club and Bughouse Square including G. G. Florine, Lionel Moise, James Rohn, Jim Seymour, and Bert Weber. A special section focuses on variants and parodies of IWW songs: a Depression-era version of “Hallelujah I’m a Bum,” Jack Langan’s 1960s version of “Solidarity Forever,” an Earth First! adaptation of Joe Hill’s “There is Power” by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz, and Hazel Dickens’ bold update of “The Rebel Girl.” The essays by the editors and Judy Branfman, Richard Brazier, James Connell, Carlos Cortez, Bill Friedland, Virginia Martin, Haywire Mac, Fred Thompson and Utah Phillips not only provide historical/ biographical context, but also a wide range of perspectives on the Wobbly counterculture and its enduring legacies.

“Beautifully illustrated and full of fascinating detail, a must for anyone interested in song, labor history, workers’ culture, and the struggle for a better world.”
- Paul Garon