Which Side Are You On?: Then & Now

The 1st Lineman probably would've been familiar or, at least, appreciative of Florence Reese's 1931 union ballad, "Which Side Are You On?" which was covered and popularized by Pete Seeger in the 60s. This past week, Ani DiFranco released the album, ¿What Side Are You On? last week on Tuesday, January 17 which includes a version of the song.

Reese's original lyrics are below, as is video of Ani DiFranco and Bruce Cockburn covering Seeger's version in 2009:

Come all of you good workers,

Good news to you I’ll tell,

Of how that good old union

Has come in here to dwell.

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on?

My daddy was a miner,

And I’m a miner’s son,

And I’ll stick with the union,

Till every battle’s won.

They say in Harlan County,

There are no neutrals there.

You’ll either be a union man,

Or a thug for J.H. Blair.

Oh, workers can you stand it?

Oh, tell me how you can.

Will you be a lousy scab,

Or will you be a man ?

Don’t scab for the bosses,

Don’t listen to their lies.

Us poor folks haven’t got a chance,

Unless we organize.

Dufy?

Raoul Dufy, Interior with an Open Window, 1928

Raoul Dufy was a French Fauvist painter who began exhibiting his work in 1901/02 and eventually became a great mural painter for the public and on public buildings. Fauvism is most associated with the  work of Henri Matisse:  Early 20th c. modern artists who emphasized painterly qualities (brush strokes and the like -- the paint form of lo-fi, if you will) and strong color over the realism and verisimilitude of the Impressionists. 

The Electric Fairy, Building Mural for the Electric Company, 1937

Taos in the early 20th c.

William Herbert Dunton, The Horse Wrestler c. 1915

By the 1930s, Taos had an established community of artists, although some of the most famous artists we associate with Taos (i.e. Georgia O'Keefe) didn't settle there until the 30s. Artists began settling there shortly after the turn of the 20th century.  By 1915, an artists' collective had formed and in 1917 Mabel Dodge Luhan, a wealthy heiress settled in Taos, set up a European style salon, patronized artists, and began personally inviting artists such as O'Keefe and Ansel Adams. 

The works of these modern artists concentrated on the landscape of the Southwest and on Native American themes.