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Bringing Workers’ Heritage to Life Through Song: "Labor’s Troubadour" Celebrates Six Decades of
The mill was made of marble
The machines were made out of gold
And nobody ever got tired
And nobody ever grew old
When I woke from this dream about heaven
I wondered if someday there’d be
A mill like that one down below here on earth
For workers like you and like me
In 1947, Joe Glazer sat down at a piano to tap out a melody for some lyrics he’d jotted down. He never dreamed that more than 50 years later, people would still be singing, “The Mill was Made of Marble.”
The textile workers’ song became an instant classic and over the years, Glazer and others adapted its stanzas for miners, autoworkers, steelworkers, journalists and others.
“When a song enters tradition, you know you’ve arrived, because it’s been taken over by the folk,” Glazer said. “When that happens, people don’t even know who wrote it anymore.”
It’s a special song for Glazer, but it’s far from the only one. Over the past 60 years, he’s inspired workers across the country — and around the world — with melodies and words that speak to their hearts, their dreams, their hardships and their sacrifices.
“Music really brings solidarity and excitement and spirit, more so than a speech can do,” Glazer said.
With humor and vivid detail, Glazer, 83, tells the stories behind his songs and guitar-strumming shows in a highly praised autobiography, “Labor’s Troubadour,” released last year. He tells of singing on picket lines and in union halls, in classrooms and farm workers’ fields and at all sorts of political events, often performing for presidents of the United States.
Glazer, now of Chevy Chase, Md., grew up in a small New York City apartment with six brothers and sisters. His father was a member of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. In his book, he said his father wasn’t an officer or union leader but a “good, solid rank-and-file member.”
“We didn’t talk much about politics or trade unions,” he said. “It didn’t seem necessary. It was an act of faith that unions were a good thing for working men and women. You never, ever crossed a picket line. Period.”
Money was scarce and Glazer didn’t own a phonograph or any records. But he became fascinated by folk songs on the radio and listened again and again to catch the lyrics and scribble them down. When he was about 15, he literally saved his “pennies and nickels and occasional dimes” to buy a $5.95 guitar from the Sears catalog.
He studied math and physics in college at the University of Wisconsin but got hooked on labor economics after reading his future wife’s textbooks. He got a job as the assistant education director for the Textile Workers Union in New York. In addition to writing brochures and leading workshops, he was soon traveling through the northeast and southern states, leading textile workers in old labor songs, his own original songs and song parodies.
Over the years, Glazer has visited more than 60 countries and sang on every continent but Australia. He did much of his traveling during a career of labor assignments with the United States Information Agency, where he began work in 1961 after 11 years as education director for the United Rubber Workers.
Glazer has shared the stage with the famous and powerful, from John Kennedy to Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Cesar Chavez, and scores of other labor, political and celebrity figures. He’s enjoyed “seeing them in a different light” from their public images.
In 1978, Glazer founded the Labor Heritage Foundation, created to strengthen the labor movement through music and arts. Many CWA members have participated in the foundation’s annual “Great Labor Arts Exchange,” a summer conference at the George Meany Center.
Glazer urges national unions and their locals to use music whenever possible at rallies, parties and meetings, not only to inspire members but to keep the heritage alive. “People learn the songs they know from radio or MTV — and they don’t play labor songs on the radio,” he said. “Every local’s got someone who can play a guitar. It’s just a matter of learning the songs.”
“Labor’s Troubadour” is published by the University of Illinois Press. It is available from online booksellers. Personally autographed copies can be ordered from: Collector Records, 9225 Wendell St., Silver Spring, MD 20901. Enclose a check or money order for $25 plus $3 shipping. The Labor Heritage Foundation and its catalog of labor music and other items for union activists can be found online at www.laborheritage.org.
The machines were made out of gold
And nobody ever got tired
And nobody ever grew old
When I woke from this dream about heaven
I wondered if someday there’d be
A mill like that one down below here on earth
For workers like you and like me
In 1947, Joe Glazer sat down at a piano to tap out a melody for some lyrics he’d jotted down. He never dreamed that more than 50 years later, people would still be singing, “The Mill was Made of Marble.”
The textile workers’ song became an instant classic and over the years, Glazer and others adapted its stanzas for miners, autoworkers, steelworkers, journalists and others.
“When a song enters tradition, you know you’ve arrived, because it’s been taken over by the folk,” Glazer said. “When that happens, people don’t even know who wrote it anymore.”
It’s a special song for Glazer, but it’s far from the only one. Over the past 60 years, he’s inspired workers across the country — and around the world — with melodies and words that speak to their hearts, their dreams, their hardships and their sacrifices.
“Music really brings solidarity and excitement and spirit, more so than a speech can do,” Glazer said.
With humor and vivid detail, Glazer, 83, tells the stories behind his songs and guitar-strumming shows in a highly praised autobiography, “Labor’s Troubadour,” released last year. He tells of singing on picket lines and in union halls, in classrooms and farm workers’ fields and at all sorts of political events, often performing for presidents of the United States.
Glazer, now of Chevy Chase, Md., grew up in a small New York City apartment with six brothers and sisters. His father was a member of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. In his book, he said his father wasn’t an officer or union leader but a “good, solid rank-and-file member.”
“We didn’t talk much about politics or trade unions,” he said. “It didn’t seem necessary. It was an act of faith that unions were a good thing for working men and women. You never, ever crossed a picket line. Period.”
Money was scarce and Glazer didn’t own a phonograph or any records. But he became fascinated by folk songs on the radio and listened again and again to catch the lyrics and scribble them down. When he was about 15, he literally saved his “pennies and nickels and occasional dimes” to buy a $5.95 guitar from the Sears catalog.
He studied math and physics in college at the University of Wisconsin but got hooked on labor economics after reading his future wife’s textbooks. He got a job as the assistant education director for the Textile Workers Union in New York. In addition to writing brochures and leading workshops, he was soon traveling through the northeast and southern states, leading textile workers in old labor songs, his own original songs and song parodies.
Over the years, Glazer has visited more than 60 countries and sang on every continent but Australia. He did much of his traveling during a career of labor assignments with the United States Information Agency, where he began work in 1961 after 11 years as education director for the United Rubber Workers.
Glazer has shared the stage with the famous and powerful, from John Kennedy to Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Cesar Chavez, and scores of other labor, political and celebrity figures. He’s enjoyed “seeing them in a different light” from their public images.
In 1978, Glazer founded the Labor Heritage Foundation, created to strengthen the labor movement through music and arts. Many CWA members have participated in the foundation’s annual “Great Labor Arts Exchange,” a summer conference at the George Meany Center.
Glazer urges national unions and their locals to use music whenever possible at rallies, parties and meetings, not only to inspire members but to keep the heritage alive. “People learn the songs they know from radio or MTV — and they don’t play labor songs on the radio,” he said. “Every local’s got someone who can play a guitar. It’s just a matter of learning the songs.”
“Labor’s Troubadour” is published by the University of Illinois Press. It is available from online booksellers. Personally autographed copies can be ordered from: Collector Records, 9225 Wendell St., Silver Spring, MD 20901. Enclose a check or money order for $25 plus $3 shipping. The Labor Heritage Foundation and its catalog of labor music and other items for union activists can be found online at www.laborheritage.org.