Labor's Troubadour (review)

Popular labor songster Joe Glazer was among the very first to introduce the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" to the American public when it was a trade union hymn called "We Will Overcome". During his career as a composer and performer of songs of protest and social justice, Glazer and his ubiquitous guitar championed the cause of workers and the oppressed in 49 states and in every venue imaginable from mines, mills, and factories to political campaigns on behalf of those sympathetic to the downtrodden. Throughout his very active life, Joe Glazer has touched the lives of millions of people.

All this and more is described in Glazer's spirited autobiography, Labor's Troubadour. With verve and color Glazer tells of his evolution from labor educator to balladeer in support of striking workers and singer/cheerleader for U.S. presidents from Truman to Clinton.

A 50-year member of the old Workers Education Local 189, and one of the founding members of the recently organized United Association for Labor Education, Glazer began his career as an education director with the Textile Workers Union. Intrigued by the music that Southern textile workers sang on the picket line and at union meetings, Glazer began composing his own labor songs and accompanying himself on the guitar as part of his education work. He continued in that vein when he became education director for the United Rubber Workers. As his popularity grew, he was asked by civic organizations, other unions, and political candidates to promote their causes in song.

As a "musical agitator for all good causes" Glazer graced countless picket lines, union halls, labor conventions, and political campaigns, often at the request of such labor giants as George Meany, Philip Murray, Walter Reuther, Cesar Chavez, and John Sweeney. Some of the songs he composed, like "The Mill Was Made of Marble" and "Too Old to Work and Too Young to Die," have become American classics.

Glazer describes how he then devoted the second half of his life to service abroad, first as a U.S. Information Agency representative in Mexico and afterwards in more than 60 countries around the world from Europe to Indonesia. Glazer writes that after returning to the U.S., he considers the establishment of the Labor Heritage Foundation one of his most important contributions. The Labor Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes labor music, art and culture in the trade union movement and among the general public.

Now in his mid-eighties, Glazer is still performing in support of workers and the working class. Labor's Troubadour not only details Joe Glazer's exciting life but also examines various aspects of songs of protest and lists the lyrics, history and performers of countless labor songs. This book would be very useful in labor studies classes, particularly those on labor history and labor culture.