#utah phillips

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Utah Phillips! (May 15, 1935)

A prolific singer-songwriter in the American folk tradition and a committed member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Bruce "Utah" Phillips was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but spent his formative years growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah. After serving in the US Army during the Korean War, Phillips, deeply affected by the death and destruction he had not only seen but caused, spent some time wandering America, hopping trains and getting into fights. Eventually he returned to Utah and became an acolyte of the Catholic anarchist Ammon Hennacy, who introduced Phillips to both anarchism and pacifism, philosophies which Phillips would hold fast to for the rest of his life. Phillips became a keeper and teller of stories, collecting the experiences and lives of older generations of radicals and ensuring that they would not be forgotten. He helped to preserve the traditional IWW songbook and mentor the next generation of folk singers. Phillips also hosted a radio show, Loafer's Glory, which ran for 100 episodes in national syndication. Phillips eventually settled in Nevada City, California, where he was active in community organizing and helped to found a homeless shelter. In ill health in his last years, Phillips died in 2008.

"I have a good friend in the East, who comes to my shows and says, you sing a lot about the past, you can't live in the past, you know. I say to him, I can go outside and pick up a rock that's older than the oldest song you know, and bring it back in here and drop it on your foot. Now the past didn't go anywhere, did it? It's right here, right now."

[nando161mando]

[prole-log]

[theoutcastrogue]

"Joe Hill wrote a song for the Free Speech fight of 1910, and it was introduced on the streets of Spokane by Haywire Mac McClintock. He was a branch secretary [of the IWW] then, he wrote "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Hallelujah, I'm a bum!". He got together a little band: T-Bone Slim, a tuba, a garbage can lid. They stood in a doorway waiting to leap out at the unemployed throng, regale them with song.

They used a shill to build the crowd, you know, a carny shill? Somebody who uses tricks to build a crowd? His name was Tresca, he wore a black suit, a black bowler hat, a string tie with an umbrella and a briefcase. Looked like a banker.

He walked down where they were hiding in the doorway and suddenly he started to yell "Help! Help! Help! I've been robbed! Help! I've been robbed!". Everybody'd run across the street, "what's the matter, what's the matter". Soon as he got the crowd together, he yelled: "I'VE BEEN ROBBED BY THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM, FELLOW-WORKERS!"

He talked to them for ten minutes, and then the boys would leap out and start singing, and this is what they were singing."

Utah Phillips - The Preacher and the Slave ("Pie in the Sky")

Long-haired preachers come out every night To try to tell you what's wrong and what's right But when asked about something to eat They will answer in voices so sweet

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

The Starvation Army they play And they shout and they clap and they pray When they've got all your coins on the drum They will tell you when you're on the bum

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

Working folks of all countries unite Side by side we for freedom shall fight When this world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain

You will eat, bye and bye When you've learned how to cook and how to fry [How to fry!] Chop some wood, it'll do you good And you'll eat in that sweet bye and bye [THAT'S NO LIE!]

full lyrics, from the 1911 edition of the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, here

[alder-knight]

doing my damnedest to put a pipe bomb through the overton window

[both photos are of me, a brown nonbinary trans person wearing mostly black with a red face mask, from the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels in NYC, 17 Sept 2023. paint + sharpie cardboard sign in first photo reads "EXTINGUISH THE WILDFIRES WITH THE BLOOD OF THE BILLIONAIRES." other side of sign in second photo reads "THE EARTH IS NOT DYING, IT IS BEING KILLED, AND THOSE WHO ARE KILLING IT HAVE NAMES AND ADDRESSES. - UTAH PHILLIPS"]

[saresmusings]

The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.

- Utah Phillips

[kornwulf]

So I've been seeing a lot of anti-Salvation Army rhetoric on this website as of late (for good reason) and I felt this might be appreciated by tumblr.

Around the turn of the last century, Joe Hill, who was an extremely prolific songwriter and poet affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote a song called "The Preacher and the Slave". It was a parody of one of the hymns favored by the Salvation Army of the period, "In the Sweet By-and-By", The Salvation Army having positioned themselves against the IWW during the labor organization of the early 20th century.

Here's a 1981 live rendition of the song by labor organizer and musician Utah Phillips

[gertruderobinsonscat]

I didn't know what exhausted me emotionally until that moment, and I realized that the experience of being a soldier, with unlimited license for excess, excessive violence, excessive sex, was a blueprint for self-destruction. Because then I began to wake up to the idea that manhood, as passed onto me by my father, my scoutmaster, my gym instructor, my army sergeant, that vision of manhood was a blueprint for self-destruction and a lie, and that was a burden that I was no longer able to carry. It was too difficult for me to be that hard. I said, "OK, Ammon, I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed.

[auxryn]

I was listening to The Dollop history podcast about PG&E. I kept thinking about this quote:

“The Earth is not dying-it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.”

— Utah Phillips

Actually, I think about that quote a lot. I think the lesson is that you can't rely on police or government to protect you when people with money, power, or authority come after you. We need to protect ourselves, and each other.

[helena-bottom-farter]

[xdirtyfingers]

[nando161mando]

[no-one-left-but-us]

[teledyn]

'I Will Not Obey' - Utah on Anarchism

[satansluckycigarette]

“I don’t like work and work don’t like me.”

[dearyallfrommatt]

Utah Phillips - “Moose Turd Pie“