Come all you Negro people, lift up your voices and sing. Meaning of the famous line “Hello from the other side” Speaking with Rolling Stone about this famous line from the song, Adele said she was aware that the line sounds pretty morbid (as though she was no longer alive), but in reality, the line is basically about surviving your late teens and early twenties and transforming into a full blown adult. The next morning, Florence, in her words, “tore a sheet from a calendar on the wall,” and wrote a new lyric to an old melody. Lyrics to Which Side Are You On by Pete Seeger from the Sing Out album - including song video, artist biography, translations and more! / Which side are you … Even if Florence Reece, the young and beleaguered Kentucky housewife, did not know the original song’s themes of transformation and bravery when she wrote her lyric, she carried them forward nonetheless. Original release by Florence Reece. tells the story of the classic union song that was written in 1931 by Florence Reece in a rain of bullets. Now with a library of over 300,000 user-submitted interpretations, if you want a song interpreted, Lyric Interpretations is the place to be. Don’t have an account? Come all you good workers Good news to you i'll tell Of how the good old union Has come in here to dwell. Blair and his men came to our house in search of Sam — that’s my husband — he was one of the union leaders,” remembered musician and activist Florence Reece. (Yes, you read that right.) It’s axiomatic: In hard times, the vulnerable suffer most. This is a song about the undead and their feelings. Which side are you on? Len Chandler, a topical singer from Greenwich Village who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery, wrote his own version: Come all you Northern liberals, take a Klansman out to lunch, But when you dine, instead of wine, you should serve nonviolent punch. "WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Which side are you on? Editor: Aaron Gilbreath; Fact-checker: Ethan Chiel, Create your own site at WordPress.com arrow-right, Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. In December, 1931, Garland and his cousin Aunt Molly Jackson travelled to New York to give concerts to raise money for the striking miners. It literally happened — people starved to death. My daddy was a miner He's now in the air and sun He'll be with you fellow workers Until the battle's won Definition and synonyms of whose side are you on? Lyrics: Come all of you poor workers / Good news to you I'll tell / Of how that good old union / Has come in here to dwell / Which side are you on? The first Almanac Singers album, Songs for John Doe, sold well enough in Communist bookstores to merit a new record. The sheriff’s department acted as enforcers for the mine operators. It's an R&B song but I don"t know if it is a group or solo artist or even if it's male or female. Oh tell me how you can? "Of the many songs born out of labor strife in America's coal camps, Florence Reece's classic 1931 union song "Which Side Are You On?" Post was not sent - check your email addresses! That's the night I met my wife. The Almanac, to help ’em through the present world…We became the Almanac Singers.”. Which side are you on? Which side are you on? It’s instructive to hear both versions. Which Side Are You On? She sings to us as a group of individuals, each with a decision to make. And you can feel the generations swimming in your sea But you know that it's coming, as surely as the dawn The battle for the future, baby, which side are you on? Which side are you on? Mellow_Harsher submitted the album for The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2 by The Mountain Goats. commentary and analysis you can trust. Now is the time to join us. Which Side Are You On? He penned some new lyrics in support of the National Maritime Union in 1947: The men who hate our union, they say we dodged the draft, Not one of those damn liars knows his forward from his aft. in 1931 during an especially violent strike. Exploring the meanings of songs since 2003. “Sheriff J.H. I think "Dark Side" is about just being you (the dark). The melody for this song originated centuries ago in England, and is known as modal music. Lyrics: This government had an idea / And parliament made it law / It seems like it's illegal / To fight for the union anymore / Which side are you on, boys? Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Feldmarschall_Friedrich This is a 1941 recording of "Which Side Are You On? A History of American Protest Music: Which Side Are You On? “In the course of such fights, songs expressed people’s feelings in a manner that allowed them to stand together,” he said. It was released as the second single from the album. Which side are you on? The B-side of B. Oh, workers can you stand it? Come on come on come on if you're coming Come on come on come on Come on come on come on if you're coming Which side are you on? Through the rolling years, “Which Side Are You On?” has been adapted and covered by myriad artists, including Dropkick Murphys and Ani DiFranco. Will you join the Ku Klux Klan or Martin Luther King? “Which Side Are You On?,” written from acute personal trauma, has been universalized, both in lyric and musical modality. The new lyric has yet to be written, but the circumstances that will inspire it are with us daily. The question renews itself as each generation struggles against inequality. Just as we were in the 1930s and ’60s, America is suffering a moral crisis. This is the British English definition of whose side are you on?.View American English definition of whose side are you on?.. Which side are you on? H.E.R. Learn more. Which side are you on? Because some people are afraid of the dark,and some people are afraid to be themselves,so I think the light is suppose to be representing a cover some peoople put on to hide who they really are. Grande confirmed this very meaning of the song to reporters at the MTV Video Music Awards, where the video premiered. “Which Side Are You On?” quickly became an anthem in the union halls and picket lines. Which side are you on? This is an ancient tune, also known as “Jack Monroe.” In most of its iterations, the song tells the story of a young woman who dresses like a man to find her lost lover in battle. They certainly employed, to great effect, the Almanac Singers’ call and response arrangement, bringing altogether more church into the proceedings. Sam Reece worked as an organizer for the National Miners Union. “They did not perform in costume, either of the concert stage or of the radio barn dance,” wrote Robert S. Cantwell in When We Were Good: The Folk Revival, “and yet their street clothes, in which they ordinarily appeared, ranged from pieces of business suits in various permutations and combinations to dungarees, workshirts, and construction boots….”, “Back where I come from, a family had two books,” remembered Arkansas-born Lee Hays. But he didn’t come home that night.”. is one of the best known. Pete Seeger begins with a stark, descending banjo riff — a foil for the upcoming single-string guitar melody — and then sings the first verse. The actual say is: "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" This means that it is easier to persuade people if you use polite arguments and flattery than if you are confrontational. Grande confirmed this very meaning of the song to reporters at the MTV Video Music Awards, where the video premiered. Which side are you on? Log in now to tell us what you think this song means. Talking Union was recorded in the same Central Park studio in May, 1941, and released on Keynote records in July. Which Side Are You On? We have to decide which side we are on: hate and exclusion, or justice, inclusion, and democracy? Reece couldn’t have known that what she created would become the most durable anthem of the labor movement, and a template for protest songs for decades to come. These folk artists collected and composed songs of the people, performed them in small clubs, union halls, and regional festivals, and made them available through recordings, virtually none of which were available to Florence Reece back in Kentucky. Florence Reece’s modal melody, an artifact of Appalachian fiddle music, has been incorporated and expanded. The miners responded by organizing a union. Songfacts - the stories and meanings behind the songs, with songwriter interviews and lyrics. Which side are you on? The Freedom Singers, a group formed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1962, rewrote the lyric to reflect their Civil Rights struggle. Which side are you on? He formed a band called the Almanac Singers with folk hero Woody Guthrie and singers Lee Hays and Millard Lampell. “I was home alone with our seven children. 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After making its way out of Harlan County and into a New York recording studio, it got modified to fit the message of countless underdog protagonists. My dady was a miner, And I'm a miner's son, He'll be with you fellow workers Until this battle's won. Which side are you on? The chorus is a haunting response to his call, sung by a group of voices. It's hard to explain to a crying child Why her Daddy can't go back So the family suffer but it hurts me more To hear a scab say, "Sod you, Jack" Which side are you on, boys? Stay informed and spot emerging risks and opportunities with independent global reporting, expert By the early 1940s, Seeger was changing the face of American popular culture. “Rather than walking up to a gun thug and saying, ‘You’re a bastard,’ which might have resulted in a shooting, we could express our anger much more easily in unison with song lyrics.”. Union members were either fired and evicted from their company-owned homes, or beaten and killed. / Which side are you on? from the online English dictionary from Macmillan Education.. Later, together with Woody Guthrie, he formed The Almanac Singers and in 1941 they recorded “Which Side Are You On?”, something Seeger repeated 21 years later with his next band, The Weavers. It was an alternative world, one informed by a mix of races and cultures and classes. Which side are you on? Florence's husband Sam was a coal miner in Kentucky. They ransacked the whole house and then kept watch outside, waiting to shoot Sam down when he came back. We hear harmonies now, as sympathetic as a friend, as organized as a union. Which side are you on, boys? View by: Highest Rated; Most Recent; Oldest First; No Comments Add your thoughts. Lyrics: Come, all you good workers / Good news to you I'll tell / Of how the good old union / Has come in here to dwell / Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on? Stormking Music, 1933.About the Author: Florence Reece (1900–1986), the wife of a coal miner and organizer for the National Miner's Union in Harlan County, Kentucky, wrote "Which Side Are You On?" Blair . There may indeed be one humanity; there may indeed be “no such thing as other people’s children,” but right now this world is binary, and we are called to choose. / Fire alarm wire’s disarmed, what do you call that? Which Side Are You On?Song lyricsBy: Florence ReeceDate: 1931Source: Reece, Florence. “In Harlan County there wasn’t no neutral. "Always on Your Side" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, and is featured on her 2005 album, Wildflower. Sign up to get the week’s best Longreads delivered to your inbox every Friday afternoon. Traditional Irish and Scottish folk music, which became the basis for Appalachian folk music, is modal, and predates 1650. Jim Garland, another organizer and songwriter, immediately used it as a tool for protest. Become a Longreads Member for just $3 per month. If you wasn’t a gun thug, you was a union man. The Pearl Harbor and the Explosions song "You Got It" was backed by "Busy Little B Side", also found on the Warner Bros. two-LP sampler, Troublemakers. (Yes, you read that right.) My daddy was a miner And I'm a miner's son And I'll stick with the union Till every battle's won . Which side are you on? Finally, we were blessed with “Side to Side,” a catchy pop tune featuring Nicki Minaj that’s all about having so much sex you can’t walk straight. sort form. “In the early thirties I had one of my babies starve to death,” recalled Kentucky singer Sarah Ogan Gunning in Voices From the Mountains. Taylor Swift just dropped a new single called "Me!" Tom Maxwell is a writer and musician. Which side are you on? Which side are you on, boys Which side are you on? Keep abreast of significant corporate, financial and political developments around the world. (of food in a restaurant) served on another…. sort form. Which Side Are You On? It always struck me that in this picture I look like I am not only of a different race, but of a different century, as though I were Emily Dickinson and had somehow wandered into the Bronx in the 1970’s. Which side are you on? Jim Garland, another organizer and songwriter, immediately used it as a tool for protest. Which side are you on, boys? Soon there was a general strike. Seeger had a knack for popularization. A listen to an a capella version of “Ho Lily Ho” by Appalachian singer Sarah Hawkes reveals the song’s origin. This story was funded by Longreads Members, Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories. You had to be.” She is asking us to decide, because even if the idea of community, in the form of a union, was comforting, the reality is that people were being picked off one by one. They performed “Which Side Are You On?”, where it ultimately caught the ear of Pete Seeger. / Which side are you on? The struggle in Harlan County emerged from the depths of the economic crisis in the coal fields in the early 1930s, which produced successive wage cuts and layoffs for miners. Which side are you on? Even though they didn’t change Reece’s original melody or lyric, the Almanac Singers took “Which Side Are You On?” from the personal to the universal. Lyrics: Who let the torch passed fall in the tall grass? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? View by: Highest Rated; Most Recent; Oldest First; 0. Oh tell me how you can? The meaning behind Taylor Swift's "Me!" Which Side Are You On ? Lyrics: Come all of you good workers / Good news to you I'll tell / Of how the good ol' union / Has come in here to dwell / Which side are you on? 1997 Spectator And while clearly ‘on side’ with New Labour, he has never been a closely quartered insider. Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? "Which Side Are You On?" The song was also adopted during the early 1960s by the black civil rights movement when The Freedom Singers gave it a hand-clapping, gospel feel and rewrote the lyrics. It has been sung by people fighting for their rights all over the world. Which Side Are You On song meanings Add your thoughts No Comments. They say in Harlan County There are no neutrals there You'll either be a union man Or a thug for J.H. “Which Side Are You On?” was the last of its six songs. “Which Side Are You On?” quickly became an anthem in the union halls and picket lines. So to you I dedicate this song, please teach me the right from wrong. Which side are you on? Will you be a lousy scab Or will you be a man? Which side are you on? A community has formed, and what they sing is as much indictment as encouragement. Oh workers can you stand it? Be the first to know about new lyrics, song meanings & more! on side supporting or part of the same team as someone else. Which Side Are You On? On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators’ Association reduced their employees’ wages — already at subsistence level — by 10 percent. Which Side Are You On? Jim Garland, who brought “Which Side Are You On?” to New York, stayed and became part of the Greenwich Village folk scene, one largely founded by people like Seeger and Guthrie. And all you could do was go over and help wash and dress ‘em and lay ‘em out and sit with the mothers until they could put ‘em away. Reece’s performance is declarative and singular. We want to dramatically increase our story fund this year, but we can't do it without your support. Modal music doesn’t have a key or chords in the way we would understand from, say, a Beatles song. Change your default dictionary to American English. In every version, fearlessness defines her: ‘Your waist is slim and slender, your fingers they are small, Your cheeks too red and rosy to face a cannon ball’, ‘My waist, I know, is slender – my fingers they are small, But it would not make me tremble to see ten thousand fall’. “You have to be on one side or the other,” she once said. These are lyrics I remember "of all the girls in the whole wide world, I dedicate you this song. The Almanac Singers’ version of “Which Side Are You On?” is an example of tonal music. Remember, it was he who changed “I Will Overcome” to “We Shall Overcome.” Seeger also identified “Which Side Are You On?” as being pliable to other applications. Will you be a lousy scab Or will you be a man? No Copyright infringement intended. She sings as an individual, without accompaniment or harmony. From there the song gained immortality. I first heard it in October 1965. Every dollar you contribute goes to writers and publishers who spend hours, weeks, and months reporting and writing outstanding stories. It's hard to explain to a crying child Why her Daddy can't go back So the family suffer But it hurts me more To hear a scab say Sod you, Jack Which side are you on, boys? You seed them starve to death too. “The Bible to help ’em to the next world. We set out to join the picket line For together we cannot fail We got stopped by police at the county line They said, "Go home boys or you're going to jail" Which side are you on, boys? Thus began a period of harassment and violence known as the Harlan County War, or more simply, Bloody Harlan. and while many might be thinking the song is all about her, it's actually so much more than that. They sang folk songs — some they wrote and some learned from others — that were pro-union and anti-war. Now it’s our turn. From Natalie's Merchant album "The House Carpenter's Daughter". 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