Wikipedia article
"'The Popular Wobbly'" is a labor song written by the Finnish-American songwriter T-Bone Slim. It is a parody of the 1917 hit "They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me" by Joseph McCarthy and Fred Fisher.[[http://www.folkarchive.de/wild1.html The Popular Wobbly (T-Bone Slim)] 'folkarchive.de'. Retrieved October 28, 2013.][[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/inharmony/detail.do?action=detail&fullItemID=/lilly/devincent/LL-SDV-034027&queryNumber=16 'They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me' by Joseph McCarthy and Fred Fisher, (New York, NY: McCarthy and Fisher, 1917).]]
"The Popular Wobbly" first appeared in the 1920 edition of the 'Little Red Songbook' published by the Industrial Workers of the World.[ Its title referred to the "Wobbly" nickname that was often given to IWW members.][[https://archive.org/details/SongsOfTheWobblies 'Songs of the Wobblies' (Detroit: Labor Arts, 1954).]]
The song was revived during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Candie Carawan wrote new lyrics that told about her 1960 arrest while taking part in desegregation sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee.['Sing For Freedom' by Guy and Candie Carawan, (Bethlehem, PA: Sing Out Corp.,1990).] The Guy and Candie Carawan version is known as 'They Go Wild Over Me'.[[http://www.folkarchive.de/wild2.html They Go Wild Over Me (Candie Anderson-Caravan)] 'folkarchive.de'. Retrieved October 28, 2013.] An adaptation of "The Popular Wobbly" was also included in a 1931 songbook published by radio personality Ernest Iverson.['Two Hundred Old Time Favorite Songs' (Omaha: Ernest N. Iverson, 1931).]
Pete Seeger,[[http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=5613 The Popular Wobbly] 'si.edu'. Retrieved October 28, 2013.] Utah Phillips[ and Joe Glazer][[https://archive.org/details/SongsOfTheWobblies Songs of the Wobblies] Internet Archive. Retrieved 10 January 2015.] are among the well-known singers who have performed the song.
References
|