Joe Hill — Songs of Labor and the Soup Line
Joe Hill wrote for mouths and memory. A familiar hymn or stage tune gave him the frame; a hard joke, a clear enemy, and a chorus did the rest. His songs could pass from a cheap red booklet to a strike meeting and from one labor camp to another without requiring a piano or even a printed copy. Their apparent simplicity is exacting craft: each parody must remain recognizable long enough for its new argument to overturn the old one. Southern California was where that craft became public. Working around San Pedro and organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World, Hill aimed his rhymes at strikebreakers, employment agencies, hunger, military discipline, and promises of reward after death. The surrounding songs, notices, prison lyrics, memorials, and IWW preamble recover the collective print culture in which his voice traveled—a world where wit was equipment, repetition built solidarity, and a chorus could turn complaint into action.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Bibliography
Hill, Joe. Songs in Industrial Workers of the World, Songs. Los Angeles Local, undated [c. 1913–1915].
———. It’s a Long Way Down to the Soup Line. Stockwitz Press, 1915.
———. Songs in Industrial Workers of the World, Songs of the Workers: On the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops. 15th ed., Industrial Workers of the World, 1919.
———. “To ‘Bronco Buster’ Flynn.” Undated manuscript verse-letter.
Brazier, Richard. “Farewell, Joe!” In Songs of the Workers: On the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops. 15th ed., Industrial Workers of the World, 1919, pp. 26–27.
George, Harrison. “Remember.” In Songs of the Workers: On the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops. 15th ed., Industrial Workers of the World, 1919, p. 5.
Pottier, Eugène. “The Internationale.” Translated by Charles H. Kerr. In Industrial Workers of the World, Songs. Los Angeles Local, undated [c. 1913–1915], pp. 12–13.