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The Popular Wobbly
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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
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