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Labor's Troubadour Joe Glazer Dead
at 88 The singer known as “Labor’s
Troubadour”, Joe Glazer passed away September 19, 2006 at his home
in Chevy Chase, Maryland from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His early days of music began in childhood with a $5.95 mail order guitar. But his true calling as a labor union folk singer bloomed after he became an education director for the Textile Workers Union and he later worked for the Rubber Workers Union. That was when Glazer first heard songs from Southern textile workers. After that first introduction to labor songs, Joe Glazer turned his attention to composing and recording songs about workers and their struggles. While working for the textile worker’s union, Glazer’s boss suggested taking the guitar to the picket line to help raise moral of the strikers and his career was launched. In 1950 Glazer recorded the first version of “We Shall Overcome” with the Elm City Four. The song would go on to become the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. The song was originally a folk song and older Baptist hymn called “I Will Overcome” before the words were re-written to serve the movement. He first heard the song at the celebrated Highlander School in Monteagle, Tennessee. His version of the song had been written by Frank Hamilton, Guy Caravan, Pete Seeger and Zilphia Horton at Highlander. It was used first to rally white workers in a 1950 film Glazer made called “Unions at Work”, before it was used for the Civil Rights Movement. All told the self-proclaimed “agitator for all causes” recorded more than 30 albums, wrote a book about labor music and played in almost all 50 states and 60 countries. His most famous song “The Mills Weren’t Made of Marble” was recorded in 1947 and recounts a mill workers prayer of a happy heaven where “nobody ever got tired and nobody ever grew old.” During his career he was invited to play for many politicians including Hubert Humphrey and played the White House in 1980 at the request of President Carter. He joined the Kennedy Administration in 1961 as a labor information officer for the United States Information Agency and held that post until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. On September 08, 2005 Joe Glazer he sang and shared stories
with union members, students and In his 88 years Joe Glazer devoted his life in service to others by carrying the union’s message in song, word and on film. At his Georgia State University show last year, Glazer stated “Our changing economy is bringing tough times to labor due to the loss of manufacturing jobs, outsourcing and the current anti-union administration in Washington. The answer is solidarity, because without that we don’t amount to anything.” His life long dedication to working people displayed his solidarity and was an inspiration to the rest of us. You can order Joe Glazer's book from the University of
Illinois Press online at: |
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justice
for workers everywhere. He had been there throughout labor’s struggles
and successes, from the desperate years of the Great Depression to the
rise of labor unions to today’s crisis of downsizing, outsourcing
and job loss. His songs, peppered with humor and irony and rife with compassion,
have inspired millions, from picket lines and union halls to Madison Square
Garden and the White House.
others
at Georgia State University in Atlanta for a special showing of his documentary,
“Labor’s Troubadour,” which explores American labor
history, immigration and politics through Glazer’s songs and commentary.