Labor Day

Official Name
Labor Day

Observed
Monday, September 7, 2009
(always the first Monday in September)

Free MP3 Download
Labor Song
(recorded by Matthew Sabatella and the Rambling String Band)

Lyrics and information about Labor Song and music of the American labor movement are further down this page.

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About Labor Day
Labor Day is a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the United States. It is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.

The holiday was created by the American labor movement in the late 19th century and was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York City. Municipal ordinances led to legislation recognizing the holiday in various states through the early 1890s. On June 28, 1894 Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

Music of Labor Day
People have been making up songs to accompany their work since time immemorial. American occupational songs paint vivid pictures of how work has been done in the United States from colonial times to the present. Songs and ballads have been sung to describe and/or accompany the work of lumberjacks, farmers, sailors, slaves, textile workers, cowboys, mothers, miners, railroaders, factory workers, and many others.

As labor unions formed and took shape in the United States during the 19th century, songs beckoned workers to join and support them. The labor press printed countless songs, ballads, and verse which described problems such as poor working conditions and unemployment, as well as songs that expressed specific demands of workers, such as shorter working days and better wages. In the labor publications, generally just the lyrics were printed, along with the name of a well-known traditional or popular melody to which they should be sung.

In the 20th century, music of the labor movement remained vital, inspirational, and influential with songwriters such as Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, and the Almanac Singers (including Pete Seeger, Lee Hayes, and Woody Guthrie) writing and singing classic songs such as Solidarity Forever, Union Maid, and Which Side are You On? These and other labor songs exhibit the fighting spirit of the workers and their determined struggle to improve their conditions through organization.

About Labor Song
When I set out to find and record a song for this Celebrate with Song blog post, I knew I wanted a song that celebrated the contributions of American workers and highlighted some of their struggles, but was not specific to a single industry or cause. As I pored through books and recordings, I discovered that what I wanted to convey was not found in a single labor song, but in the sum of every labor song.

One song I kept coming back to is All I Want (I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister). The tune is from a version of the mountain song East Virginia. The words were written by a young man named Jim Garland who was blacklisted from the mines of Harlan County, Kentucky in the 1930s amidst bitter struggles between miners and mine owners. Many lines in the song captured the essence of Labor Day for me: "I don't want your millions, mister," "All I want is the right to live, mister," yet other lines were specific to that struggle, "Give to me my old job back."

I decided to use All I Want as a starting point, and to borrow verses from other labor songs in order to obtain the breadth I desired. That's when the real fun began. I searched books such as Best Loved American Folk Songs by John and Alan Lomax, Songs of Man by Norman Luboff and Win Stracke, and American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century by Philip S. Foner, which includes hundreds of songs that were originally printed in the labor press. I stopped my search when I had twenty-three stanzas that both fit the tune (with minor adaptations) and contributed well to the celebration of labor.

In the interest of keeping the song to a manageable length, I eventually selected and sequenced eight stanzas. Original song sources for each stanza are listed at the end of the lyrics.

Labor Song
chorus:
I don't want your millions, mister
There’s hard times somewhere every day
All I want is the right to live, mister
Honest work for honest pay

verses:
I drove the plow in virgin soil
My weary feet the furrow trod
At last I gathered golden grain
‘Twas mine, hard-earned by toil and pain (1)

I carried rock from granite hill
Laid stone on stone till giant mill
Transformed my grain to tempting food
‘Twas mine, hard-earned by sweat and blood (2)

(chorus)

How little do the rich men care
When they sit at home secure
What dangers all the workers dare
And the hardships they endure (3)

Here’s to the delver in the mine
The sailor on the ocean
With those of every craft and line
Who work with true devotion (4)

(chorus)

When toiling millions work to fill
The wealthy coffers strong
When hands are crushed that work and fill
There must be something wrong (5)

John Henry told his captain
A man ain’t nothin’ but a man
But before I let this steam drill beat me
Gonna I’ll die with my hammer in my hand (6)

(chorus)

And by union, what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none, singly none (7)

Freedom’s name is mighty sweet
All this world is gonna meet
Keep your hand on the plow
Hold on, hold on (8)

(chorus)

Sources:

1. adapted from Labor’s Demand; written by Frank I. Fisher for the San Francisco assemblies of Knights of Labor c. 1882
2. adapted from Labor’s Demand; written by Frank I. Fisher for the San Francisco assemblies of Knights of Labor c. 1882
3. adapted from Down in a Coal Mine
4. adapted from A Toast for Labor; printed in Boston Daily Evening Voice, July 3, 1867
5. adapted from There Must Be Something Wrong; printed in Voice of Industry, February 12, 1847
6. adapted from various John Henry songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
7. adapted from a poem that headed the constitution of the American Miner’s Association and was put to music and sung by union membership c. 1861
8. from Keep Your Hand on the Plow; a folk song product of labor and singing by both blacks and whites

Happy Labor Day!