I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night…
By Adrian Bleifuss Prados • Nov 27th, 2007 • Category: Culture…and Joe said, “you people need some new tunes.”
Any self-respecting social movement needs a repertoire of decent songs. The American left, despite its relative political weakness, has given the world a treasure trove of political hymns and radical anthems. Spirituals and gospel songs associated with the labor and civil rights movements are now sung all over the world.”We Shall Not Be Moved” is now sung by striking workers and cheering soccer fans alike. Pete Seeger and Lee Hays’ “If I had a Hammer” has been translated into several languages was turned into a Latin American classic, “El martillo,” by Chilean folksinger Victor Jara.
In the English-speaking countries, “The Red Flag,” written by James Connell, was a traditional anthem of socialist parties. My main problem with The Red Flag is that it is usually sung to the tune of “O Tannenbaum,” perhaps the lamest of Christmas carols. The lyrics are also a bit gruesome:
The people’s flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyr’d dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts’ blood dyed its ev’ry fold
Scanning the internet, I found a few good parodies. Here’s one for sell-out social democrats:
The People’s Flag is palest pink
It’s not as red as you might think
But just to prove that we’re sincere
We’ll sing the Red Flag once a year.
And one for the anarchists:
The workers’ flag is blackest black
The red one’s just for bureaucrats
We’ll organize to smash the State
And shoot the vanguard while we wait
The other classic is “The Internationale,” which has been translated into practically every language from its original French. In English, we have lyrics for both American and British versions of the song. The American variation, written by Charles Kerr and popularized by the Little Red Songbook, goes like this:
Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye wretched of the earth
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world’s in birth!
Does this song need an update? To my mind, “wretched of the earth” sounds a bit too pathetic. And while global hunger remains a real problem, I (who could stand to lose a few pounds) can hardly identify myself as a “prisoner of starvation.” As it stands now, the Internationale is a song of Dickensian misery expressed in unsingable and archaic language. Of course, the Internationale is too precious and too universal to abandon…but how about some fresher lyrics? We already have competing versions and variations so it wouldn’t be too much of a betrayal of tradition to update the words.
There are plenty of new political songs out there, especially coming out of political hip hop, but these songs are just not easy to sing en masse. Bottom line is, we new troubadours and some new songs to fan the flames of discontent. Am I right?
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Billy Bragg, the famed English folk artist/ rock and roll artist, has updated the music behind Red Flag and updated the lyrics for the Internationale, check it out
The first version of “The Red Flag” I learned was the Billy Bragg version. I sing the old version now, and it’s one of my favorite left wing songs. There is a hilarious video on YouTube made by the Liberal Democrats with “The Red Flag” playing and old and new Labour Party posters. It shows the orginal posters and shown and then altered ones. I couldn’t find it so here is a video of a drunk kid being forced to sing it: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9FLPTSEU4A&feature=related).
Adrian, it would have been good to include the other verses that sing of Chicago and even Moscow — a much different Labour Party. Jason Schulman and I love singing “The People’s Flag is Palest Pink” - a parody sung by the Labour Left and others.
The people’s flag is palest pink
It’s not the colour you might think
White collar workers stand and cheer
The Labour government is here
We’ll change the country bit by bit
So nobody will notice it
And just to show that we’re sincere
We’ll sing The Red Flag once a year
When my dad first came here from Chile, he wondered why Pete Seeger had copied Victor Jara!
…and how can you ignore this old gem of a take-off on the Red Flag and social mobility?
The working class can kiss my ass
I got the foreman’s job at last.
Plus, the best translation of “Debout les damnés de la terre; Debout les forçats de la faim” really is (unfortunately)
“Get up, you damned earthly souls, Stand up, you prisoners trapped by starvation.”
To which Bob Marley wrote…well, you know what Bob Marley wrote.
An academic variation on the first of Mike’s offerings:
Habermas can kiss my ass
I got my doctorate at last
(If you don’t know who [Jurgen] Habermas is…it’s OK. I promise.)