I AM A UNION WOMAN

Created on 07/09/2006
Latest update on 02/01/2024

Artist: Aunt Molly Jackson
Author: Molly Jackson
Label: Rounder
Year: 1935

To the tune of Baptist hymn Lay The Lily Low and British ballad Jack Munro. She wrote and performed it during mine strikes in Bell & Harlan Co., KY (1919 and 1931). Never spoke at rallies without singing her song first: "I am a union woman and brave as I can be, I do not like the bosses and the bosses don't like me". Tough cookie. Alan Lomax recording.

Covers:

1941:

Almanac Singers [as Which Side Are You On, another union song based on the same melody and written by Florence Reece, wife of a union man and seriously challenged by vigilante men during that same strike in Kentucky in 1931, verbally taking a stand with the words of her song]

1960:

John Greenway [standing in for Aunt Molly on a Smithsonian session, one week after she died]

1963:

Weavers [as Which Side Are You On]

1967:

Pete Seeger [idem]

1976:

Florence Reece [at the age of 75]

1981:

New Lost City Ramblers [as Join The C.I.O.]

1985:

Billy Bragg [as Which Side Are You On in the context of the British mine strikes]

1986:

Dick Gaughan [idem]

2000:

Dropkick Murphys [idem]

2003:

Natalie Merchant [as Which Side Are You On]

2012:

Ani DiFranco [idem on eponymous album, with Pete Seeger]

2014:

Elvis Costello & Joan Baez [idem]

2020:

Kronos Quartet [idem]

Aunt Molly claimed to be the inspiration for Al Dexter's hit Pistol Packin' Mama (see there), when she and her sister (see: Come All You Coal Miners) had robbed a vigilante man's gun, pointed it right at his private parts, forcing him to flee a picket line.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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