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UNION THUGS SAY"

"In 1940, the militant folk band The Almanac Singers, which Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger are members of, are touring in the Oklahoma area with Bob and Ina Wood, both organisers of the local communist party, which organize concerts in solidarity with the Hooverviller workers, for the oil wells striking workers and the unemployed workers alliance. Being a fiery feminist, Ina Wood scolds Guthrie for a good stretch of the way about the non-existent female representation in the band' s songs. It gets a swift answer from Guthrie whom will compose Union Maid before the end of the tour. The songs becomes one of the most popular from Guthrie's Catalog and is since printed in union songs booklets and sung on picket lines all over the continent.

It is actually a pastiche of Red Wing, folk song written in 1907 by Kerry Mills & Thurland Chattaway about a young native women waiting day and night for her ''man'' whom has gone to war. Red Wing's music is itself taken form pianist Robert Schumann's Opus 68 No 10 : The Happy Farmer , Returning From Work (1848).

When we first decided to cover Union Maid, we had to bring some corrections. The third verse, written by Millar Lampell, another Almanac singer, was inviting the Union Maid to get married to a union man to truly be free. We thought the idea was a bit outdated. A few artists already tackled the third verse problem like Nancy Kantz (1973) who changed the lyrics to assert the fact that the feminist struggle had got to go on even in her union; then Seeger and Reiser (1985) invited women to take example of Mother Jones, who was a fierce militant. As far as we are concerned, we simply dropped the verse. As Oi! leads our way, we simply chose to sing the chorus a few more times. A choice that was maybe not as politically driven as Katz version, but sticks with out desire to make the audience sing with us."

lyrics

LYRICS

There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.

CHORUS :
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say

[CHORUS]

credits

from UNION THUGS - FOLKLORE OUVRIER, released July 4, 2020

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