Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The last time I checked, songs consist of two things - lyrics and melody. Anyone considering buying this book should know, then, that it contains NO MELODIES. "The Big Red Lyric Book" would be a better title. It's a fine book for anyone who wants a history of the songs of the IWW - it has a wealth of essays, illustrations and historical biographies. If you want to use it to actually learn some Wobbly songs, though, it's not going to serve. I was disappointed when I first flipped through the book - I wanted a songbook, not a historical survey.
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This is indeed an incredible endeavor. For sure the most comprehensive collection of rebel workers songs and poems ever compiled in English. It includes ALL the songs that appeared in the IWW s celebrated "little red songbook" from 1909 through 1973, plus dozens of others that never made it into the songbook. Here are the songs of Joe Hill, T-Bone Slim, Dick Brazier, Ralph Chaplin, Covington Hall and other Wobbly legends, as well as lesser known but ought-to-be legends such as Eugene Barnett, Paul Walker, and Henry Pfaff. For the first time anywhere, here's a good selection of songs by women Wobblies: Anges Thecla Fair, Laura Payne Emerson, Sophie Fagin, Jane Street, Laura Tanne and others, as well as songwriters from other continents--including Australians Bill Casey and Harry Hooton, the Englishman Leon Rosselson, Germans Ernest Riebe and John Olday, and the Scotsman Douglas Robson. 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." Best of all, perhaps, is the wealth of essays, analysis, references, bibliographies, and discographies, provided by Archie Green, his coeditors, and other collaborators, providing not only historical/biographical context, but also a wide range of perspectives on the Wobbly counterculture and its enduring legacies. With an afterword by Utah Phillips!
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