Music from Past Performances
| A Miner's Life The Army Song Asikhatali Banks of Marble Bread and Roses  Die Gedanken Sind Frei Do You Hear the People Sing? Dona Nobis Pacem El Pueblo Unido Follow the Drinking Gourd Garbage Get Thee Behind Me Satan Give Me your Tired Guantanamera Harmony Health Care Song (Go Tell It to the Nation) Health Care Workers Are United Hold the Fort I Don't Want Your Millions I've Been Buked Joe Hill Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya Lift Every Voice Listen to the Earth Lives in the Balance Look Over Yonder Money, Money More Than a Paycheck | My Mind Stayed on Freedom No More Auction Block For Me Not In Our Name Ode to Workers Oh Freedom (Social Justice) On the Line Rockin' Solidarity Roll the Union On Si Me Quieres Escribir Sing Me a Song (Social Significance) Sit Down Strike Siyahamba Solidarity Forever (Rockin' Solidarity) Step by Step There is Power in a Union This Old Hammer Union Maid Union Train United Front Va. Pensiero Visions of Children Welcome Union Members We Shall Not Give Up the Fight We Shall Overcome When the Idle Poor Which Side Are You On? Whoever Invented the Fishfinger |
| HEALTH CARE SONG Words: Julie McCall, Local 722 SEIU Music: Go Tell It On the Mountain Chorus: Go tell it to the nation On Capitol Hill and everywhere Go tell it to the nation We all deserve healthcare. The greedy corporations Determine who survive. Can we give just the wealthy The right to stay alive! Chorus In hospitals and clinics The poor are turned away. The system won't provide for The ones who cannot pay. Chorus It's time to work for changes It's time to face the facts. When children have no healthcare Can we just turn our backs? Chorus For universal coverage We're putting out a call Cause freedom without health care Is not freedom at all! Chorus WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Words: Florence Reece (1931) Music: old hymn tune Come all of you good workers Good news to you I'll tell, Of how the good old union Has come in here to dwell. Chorus: Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? They say in Harlan County There are no neutrals there. You'll either be a union man Or a thug for J.H.Blair Chorus My daddy was a miner And I'm a miner's son And I'll stick with the union Till ev'ry battle's won. Chorus Oh workers can you stand it? Oh tell me how you can. Will you be a lousy scab Or will you be a man? Chorus Don't scab for the bosses Don't listen to their lies. Us poor folks haven't got a chance Unless we organize. Chorus | BANKS OF MARBLE By Lee Rice I've traveled 'round this country From shore to shining shore And it really made me wonder At the things I heard and saw. I saw the weary farmer He was plowing sod and loam And I heard the auction hammer It was knocking down his home. But the banks are made of marble With a guard at every door And the vaults are stuffed with silver That the farmer sweated for. I saw the weary miner Scrubbing coal dust from his back And I heard his children crying Got no coal to heat the shack But the banks are made of marble With a guard at every door And the vaults are stuffed with silver That the miner sweated for. I saw the idle seamstress Her factory's been shut down Twenty girls now get her wages In a Guatamalan town. But the banks are made of marble With a guard at every door And the vaults are stuffed with silver That the seamstress sweated for. I've seen my people working Throughout this mighty land And I prayed we'd get together And together make a stand. Then we'd own those banks of marble With no guard at any door And we'd share those vaults of silver That we have sweated for. VINE AND FIG TREE And everyone 'neath their vine and fig tree Shall live in peace and unafraid (repeat) And into plowshares beat their swords Nations shall learn war no more (repeat) Love to your neighbor and Love to the Spirit of all life! (repeat) |
Gala Benefit Concert 2007 - Program
Our 2007 Gala Benefit Concert was a sold out success! Below is the Concert Program which describes the exciting music we performed on June 16, 2007.
There is Power in a Union
Words by Billy Bragg, melody from the anti-slavery song of the American Civil War, "The Battle Cry of Freedom."
Sit Down Strike
Words and music by Peter Schlosser.
COAL MINERS' STORY
A Miner's Life
Traditional
Which Side Are You On?
Words and music by Florence Reece, wife of a union leader in the 1931 miners strike of Harlan County, Kentucky. Written after the sheriff, J.H. Blair, and his goons broke into her home while she was protecting her young children.
We Shall Not Give Up the Fight
Out of the struggles in South Africa.
THE DESIRE FOR FREEDOM
Asikhatali
An anti-apartheid song from South Africa.
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Contains coded information for runaway slaves: "The Drinking Gourd" is the Big Dipper, which points North; "Peg Foot" refers to Peg Leg Joe, who helped spread information from plantation to plantation; and "when the sun comes back and the first quail calls" refers to wintertime, when the Ohio River is frozen so escapees could walk across. Arrangement by Peter Schlosser.
Gedanken Sind Frei
Old German political song dating back to the era of The Peasant's War [1524-1526], a forerunner of the great freedom revolts which culminated in the French Revolution. Arrangement by Peter Schlosser.
Va, Pensiero
Chorus sung by the Hebrew slaves in Verdi's "Nabucco", it became the unofficial hymn of Italian national liberation and reunification.
Oh Freedom
"My belief in freedom goes way back to the days when my mother used to sing 'Oh Freedom'...these words...gave me strength when things seemed bad, and they guided my thoughts about what I was willing to do to be free." Rosa Parks
INTERMISSION
THE REALITY OF WAR
The Army Song
Words by Bertolt Brecht, music by Kurt Weill, English words by M. Blitzstein, from "Threepenny Opera." Arrangement by Peter Schlosser.
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye
An Irish song, generally dated to the early 19th century, when Irish troops served the British East India Company. Arrangement by Peter Schlosser.
Si Me Quieres Escribir
From the Spanish Civil War.
OUR PRECIOUS PLANET
Listen to the Earth
Words and music by Peter Schlosser.
Step By Step
Chorus from the constitution of the American Miners Union circa 1860 with additional words by our own bass, Jeff Vogel. Sung to a traditional Irish melody.
OUR UNION HERITAGE
Get Thee Behind Me, Satan
Written by Lee Hayes and the Almanac Singers. Arrangement by Peter Schlosser.
Union Maid
Words by Woody Guthrie to the tune of "Red Wing" arranged by Peter Schlosser.
Hold the Fort
British Transport Workers' Union Song. Arranged by Geoffrey Fairweather, reconstructed by Barbara Barnes, Gene Glickman and Dennis Nelson.