Union Boys | |
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![]() Josh White (here at Café Society circa June 1946) sang lead on most Union Boys songs | |
Background information | |
Origin | New York City |
Genres | Folk |
Years active | 11 March 1944 |
The Union Boys (also "Josh White and the Union Boys"[1]) was an American folk music group, formed impromptu in 1944, to record several songs on an album called Songs for Victory: Music for Political Action. Its "all-star leftist"[2] members were Josh White, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Tom Glazer (and Woody Guthrie by contributing a song).[3][4][5]
History
[edit]Background
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/PeteSeeger2.jpg/220px-PeteSeeger2.jpg)
Songs of Victory fits with the Almanac Singers' album Dear Mr. President.[7]
In 1942, Army intelligence and the FBI determined that the Almanacs and their former anti-draft message were still a seditious threat to recruitment and the morale of the war effort among blacks and youth.[8] and they were hounded by hostile reviews, exposure of their Communist ties and negative coverage in the New York press, like the headline "Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio."[9] They disbanded in late 1942 or early 1943.
Recording session
[edit]On March 11, 1944,[10] Alan Lomax assembled the group for an impromptu recording at the Asch Recording Studio in New York City.[1][2][5][11]
The album represents a change from the anti-war, anti-racism, and pro-union philosophies of most of its members but a continuation of their anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist philosophies in the form for support for the US and the Allies (which included the USSR).
The Union Boys turned out to be a one-time, one session "group": Moe Asch gave them the name.[5]
Afterwards
[edit]A few months later, White and Glazer recorded another album with a similar title, Songs of Citizen CIO.[3] Songs for Victory also began White's association with recording engineer Moe Asch, who released White's next two albums on his Asch Records label.[2]
Track listing
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Woody_Guthrie_2.jpg/220px-Woody_Guthrie_2.jpg)
Woody Guthrie was not in New York City at the time and did not partake; the Union Boys sang one of his songs.[5]
The Recorded Sound Archives of Florida Atlantic University lists:
- "Hold the Fort / We Shall Not Be Moved"[4]
- "Hold On" (traditional, Union Boys led by Josh White)[1][10]
- "UAW-CIO" (written by Butch Haws)[12]
- "A Dollar Ain't a Dollar Any More" (written by Tom Glazer)
- "Sally Don't You Grieve" (written by Woody Guthrie)
- "Jim Crow" (written by Josh White, sung by Josh White)[1]
The book Josh White: Society Blues by Elijah Wald lists:
- "Hold On" (traditional, led by Josh White)
- "Little Man on a Fence" (written and sung by Josh White)
- "Move into Germany" (sung by Josh White and Brownie McGhee)
- "Jim Crow" (written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes, Union Boys led by Josh White)[2][10]
The album may have been reproduced at least once as Song for Political Action by the Union Boys.[4]
Hold On (Keep Your Hand On That Gun)
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Sonny_Terry_at_the_Nambassa_3_day_Music_%26_Alternatives_festival%2C_New_Zealand_1981._Photographer_Michael_Bennetts.jpg/220px-Sonny_Terry_at_the_Nambassa_3_day_Music_%26_Alternatives_festival%2C_New_Zealand_1981._Photographer_Michael_Bennetts.jpg)
"Hold On," itself a rewrite of a Gospel song "Gospel Plow,"[2] received a pro-war rewrite for this album, including the refrain:
Hold on – Franklin D. / Hold on – Winston C. / Hold on – Chiang Kai-shek / Hold on – Joseph Stalin / Keep your hands on that gun / And hold on.[2]
The song appeared on White's posthumous album Free and Equal Blues (1998).[10][13]
A celebration of the Allies' united front, the song is an entertaining reminder of what strange bedfellows politics can make, as the singers belt out the names of their heroic leaders: Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek, and Joseph Stalin.[10]
Later, Josh White recorded the old folk tune as a new song, "Keep Your Hand on that Vote" that called "united Negroes" to voting booths.[10]
(The folk song saw renewed resurgence in the 1950s and 1960s as "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize."[14])
Personnel
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Burlives.jpg/220px-Burlives.jpg)
Big Red Songbook[4] shows the following lineup:
- Alan Lomax - producer (vocals on "Hold On")[10]
- Tom Glazer - guitar
- Burl Ives - guitar
- Brownie McGhee - <->
- Pete Seeger - banjo
- Sonny Terry - harmonica
- Josh White - guitar
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Songs for Victory: Music for Political Action". Florida Atlantic University. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Wald, Elijah (6 December 2013). Josh White: Society Blues. Routledge. p. 116. ISBN 9781136723650. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b Denning, Michael (1998). The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century. Verso. p. 350. ISBN 9781859841709. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d Phillips, Utah (19 February 2016). Big Red Song Book: 250+ IWW Songs!. PM Press. pp. –??. ISBN 9781629632605. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d Santelli, Robert; Davidson, Emily (1999). Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 197 (no Woody Guthrie), 209 (Moe Asch). ISBN 9780819563910. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ From the Washington Post, February 12, 1944: "The Labor Canteen, sponsored by the United Federal Workers of America, CIO, will be opened at 8 p.m. tomorrow at 1212 18th st. nw. Mrs. Roosevelt is expected to attend at 8:30 p.m."
- ^ "When Decca backed away from its contract offer [because of bad publicity associated with Songs for John Doe], the Almanacs recorded Dear Mr. President. Earl Robinson supervised the January 1942 session, which featured six songs in support of the war effort" (Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, Songs for Political Action, Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 94).
- ^ According to an article in The Amsterdam News, the FBI also came after Billie Holiday, when she sang a pacifist song in the middle of the war, forcing her manager to make her change her repertoire. See Denning (1997), p. 343.
- ^ "We got to sing [the pro-war song, 'Round and Round Hitler's Grave'] on January '42, on a nationwide CBS broadcast, 'This is War'. But the next day a headline in a major New York newspaper said 'Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio,' and that was the last job we got" (Where Have All the Flowers Gone [1993, 1997], p. 28).
- ^ a b c d e f g "Liner notes for Josh White, Free and Equal Blues" (PDF). Smithsonian-Folkways. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ Cohen, Ronald D.; Capaldi, James (16 December 2013). The Pete Seeger Reader. Oxford University Press. pp. ?? (date, location). ISBN 978-0-19-933612-8. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ "Union Boys "U.A.W.-C.I.O."". Labor Arts. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ "Free and Equal Blues". Smithsonian-Folkways. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ Carawan, Guy; Carawan, Candie (1994). Ain't You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?: The People of Johns Island South Carolina-Their Faces, Their Words, and Their Songs. University of Georgia Press.