Talking Union-The Almanac Singers

[ti:Talking Union] [ar:The Almanac Singers] [al:House of the Rising Sun] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Talking Union - The Almanac Singers [00:05.57]Now if you want higher wages [00:06.59]Let me tell you what to do [00:07.70]You got to talk to the workers [00:08.88]In the shop with you [00:09.92]You got to build you a union [00:11.23]Got to make it strong [00:12.20]But if you all stick together [00:13.44]Boys it won't be long [00:14.61]You get shorter hours [00:15.96] [00:17.88]Better working conditions [00:19.07] [00:20.40]Vacations with pay [00:21.26]Take your kids to the seashore [00:22.72] [00:24.15]It ain't quite this simple [00:25.13]So I better explain [00:26.13]Just why you got to [00:27.06]Ride on the union train [00:28.42]Cause if you wait for [00:29.36]The boss to raise your pay [00:31.13]We'll all be a-waiting till Judgment Day [00:33.07]We'll all be buried gone to heaven [00:36.59] [00:38.40]St Peter'll be the straw boss then [00:40.11] [00:42.57]Now you know you're underpaid [00:43.55]But the boss says you ain't [00:44.79]He speeds up the work [00:45.90]Till you're about to faint [00:46.86]You may be down and out [00:48.06]But you ain't beaten [00:48.90]You can pass out a leaflet [00:50.26]And call a meeting [00:51.47]Talk it over speak your mind [00:54.86] [00:56.55]Decide to do something about it [00:58.36] [01:00.25]Course the boss may persuade [01:01.41]Some poor damn fool [01:02.43]To go to your meeting and act like a stool [01:04.40]But you can always tell a stool [01:05.74]Though that's a fact [01:06.55]He's got a yaller streak a-running down his back [01:08.74]He doesn't have to stool [01:10.20] [01:11.30]He'll always get along [01:13.09] [01:14.15]On what he takes out of blind men's cups [01:16.06] [01:21.63]You got a union now [01:22.54]And you're sitting pretty [01:23.60]Put some of the boys on the steering committee [01:26.02]The boss won't listen [01:26.84]When one guy squawks [01:28.05]But he's got to listen [01:29.13]When the union talks [01:30.31]He'd better be mighty lonely [01:33.83] [01:35.56]Everybody decide to walk out on him [01:37.51] [01:42.11]Suppose they're working you [01:42.83]So hard It's just outrageous [01:44.03]And they're paying you all starvation wages [01:46.58]You go to the boss [01:47.37]And the boss would yell [01:48.42]Before I raise your pay [01:49.40]I'd see you all in hell [01:50.48]Well he's puffing a big cigar [01:51.92]Feeling mighty slick [01:52.86]'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked [01:55.13]Well he looks out the window [01:56.16]And what does he see [01:57.12]But a thousand pickets and they all agree [01:59.24]He's a bastard unfair slavedriver [02:05.47] [02:05.98]Bet he beats his wife [02:07.15] [02:11.31]Now boys you've come to the hardest time [02:13.47]The boss will try to bust your picket line [02:15.36]He'll call out the police [02:16.70]The National Guard [02:17.99]They'll tell you [02:18.50]It's a crime to have a union card [02:19.89]They'll raid your meeting [02:20.97]They'll hit you on the head [02:21.97]They'll call every one of you a goddam red [02:24.05]Unpatriotic Japanese spies [02:28.43] [02:30.19]Sabotaging national defense [02:32.31] [02:34.93]But out at Ford here's what they found [02:36.89]And out at Vultee here's what they found [02:38.94]And out at Allis-Chalmers [02:40.35]Here's what they found [02:41.34]And down at Bethlehem [02:42.36]Here's what they found [02:43.11]That if you don't let red-baiting break you up [02:45.52]And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up [02:47.53]And if you don't let vigilantes break you up [02:49.70]And if you don't let race hatred break you up [02:52.16]You'll win What I mean [02:53.39]Take it easy [02:54.10]But take it