Description of Joe Hill's Work:

Labor activist, songwriter, labor union songs

Comparisons:

Joe Hill's work could be compared to that of other folks who have used folk music to help organize labor unions and share the story of the labor movement. Zilphia Horton used music toward a similar end a generation later (some of her exports include "We Shall Overcome," "This Little Light of Mine," and more). The Almanac Singers and Utah Phillips are other great folksingers who were richly involved in the labor movement.


Joe Hill's songs might be of interest to fans of Joe Glazer, Steve Earle, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Billy Bragg.

Purchase/Download Joe Hill MP3s:

Billy Bragg - "There Is Power in a Union"
Utah Phillips - "Preacher and the Slave"
Almanac Singers - "Casey Jones: Union Scab"

Recommended Albums Containing Joe Hill's Songs:

• Utah Phillips - We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years
• Almanac Singers - Talking Union and Other Songs
• Various artists - Don't Mourn - Organize! Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill

Recommended Books About Joe Hill:

• Joe Hill, by Gibbs Smith
• Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel, by Wallace Stegner
• Joe Hill: The IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture, by Franklin Rosemont
• The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, by William M. Adler

Joe Hill Biography:

Joe Hill was born as Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in Gastrikland, Sweden, Oct. 7, 1879. He had eight siblings - three which died during childhood. His father was a railroad worker, and Hill's childhood home in Gavle, Sweden, is now a museum.

Hill emigrated to the US in 1902, after his mother's death, with his brother Paul. Though he landed in New York City, he eventually found his way out to San Francisco, where he joined the IWW (Wobblies) some time around 1910. He became an ardent activist in the IWW, and traveled around the west coast, hopping trains to get from job to job, giving speeches, singing songs, and writing labor poems. Among the songs he wrote and taught to IWW workers were "Casey Jones: Union Scab," "The Rebel Girl," and "Preacher and the Slave."

Just four years after joining the IWW, Hill landed a job at the Silver King Mine in Park City, UT. There, he was framed for the murder of a local butcher/former police officer. The widely circulated story was that Hill was actually having an affair with a married woman, and did not confess to that alibi soas not to ruin her reputation. Instead, without a viable alibi, he was tried and convicted of murder. Despite an international clemency campaign, Joe Hill was executed by firing squad on Nov. 19, 1915.

Just before his execution, he wrote his famous last words in a letter to IWW leader Bill Haywood: "Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize." (His actual last word was "Fire!")

His body was cremated in Chicago and his ashes were reportedly distributed to every IWW local except that in Utah. His songs have been sung by countless folksingers around the world, including Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Billy Bragg, Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Shocked, Ani DiFranco, Bob Dylan, and many more.