Get all 7 John Paul Wright releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Knucklebuster, Run Over By A Train, I Got My Learnin' From The L&N, #Railroaded, Singing To The Choir, Born Union, and Music For Modern Railroaders.
1. |
War On The Workers
04:24
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2. |
Singing To The Choir
04:51
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The state of our union is a damn disgrace.
That’s why it’s hard to wave that flag these days.
People are tired of loosing everything that they have worked for.
And ready to thrown the union out the door.
I’m singing to the choir,
Y’all already know,
That this top down unionizing has got to go!
I’m singing to the choir,
Come on sing it with me.
This ain’t no way to build solidarity.
You know what they say that “working in these times”
“This is the best we could do to muscle you this dime.”
Under the table handshakes you think it was a crime.
But this ain’t nothing new; they do it every time.
They sent the tenative agreement and it was already bound.
We didn’t hear about it not a peep or a sound.
They say that they bargain in good faith.
You can read that lie, its written all over their face.
So hey all you Hoffa’s of this land.
It takes more that slogans and rhetoric to be a union man.
So while you’re giving them everything we got.
The power of the union is at the bottom, not the top.
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3. |
Hey, Hey Jimmie Rodgers
02:31
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Hey, Hey Jimmie Rodgers. 11/2011
Hey, Hey Jimmie Rodgers,
I wrote you a song.
About how the Railroad is coming along.
I know why it’s lonesome just
Like you said.
They’ll work you till your tired and feel like your dead.
Here’s to John Henry and Casey Jones too.
I know the real story of what they did to you.
And how your wife went to her grave,
Defending’ her husband from the story the IC railroad made.
And hey Bob Dylan,
This one is for you too.
About the question you asked and that wind too.
That carried the seed that y’all sowed.
There’s a better day a commin!
I think Y’all knowed.
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4. |
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Standin at the crossroads.
Nov. 2011
We’re standing at the crossroads
I don’t need GPS to tell me,
We’re going in the wrong direction with this democracy.
We’re standing at the crossroads,
I don’t need GPS to tell me
We’re going in the wrong direction in this country.
Our kids are being raised by Disney and the latest fad.
When they grow up they will find out that they’ve been had.
Our children are not test scores, they’re being left behind.
While well trained teachers are standin in the firing line.
The anti human agenda, of the wealthiest elite,
Is to Stage the greatest heist while standin on our feet.
Stealing our country, stealing our homes and spreading their
Lies with their media drones.
Why would you want to fight Americans for prosperity.
Read between the lines, think for yourself and you will see.
People built this country, not their corporate machines,
That they are using now to steal the American dream.
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5. |
Hobo Life
05:26
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Hobo Life 2012.
Spent the night in the hole of a grain car.
We’ve been a travlin’, but I don’t know how far.
Leaving nothing as my trail,
And lonely sorrow is the story I tell.
And I’m Gone
Lord, I’m Gone
I ain’t got no home, Im just ramblin’ around.
Don’t ask me nothin’ and I won’t make a sound.
I won’t do anything, I don’t wanna do.
I’ll strap a retread to my shoe.
I’ve been busted a couple of times.
Put off the train, I don’t think it’s a crime,
To ride the rails out under the stars,
Leaving messages on boxcars.
I’ve rode the CP and CSX,
The Norfolk Southern and BNSF.
I don’t care which train I ride,
The ones that’s leavin’, I’ll hope every time.
I won’t tell you nothin’ you don’t already know.
Like I’d thought you care, If I told you so.
That’s why I spend my time in the shadows of the night,
Rollin’ across the land in a Hobo Life.
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6. |
Jesus Christ
04:12
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7. |
#Stand UP
03:31
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11/2011 #OWS Stand up!
Apartheid system of corporate rule!
Makes our constitution a golden rule.
Money and corruption stealing our schools,
No child left behind, they think we bought the wool.
All the history been changed, changed to fit,
The agenda of cash for politics!
We live in a land that was stole,
That’s the truth, no matter how you go!
.
In the end the meek shall inherit this place,
Maybe that explains their race for space...
We know that death can come from industry!
With no care for you, no care for me.
They say this place is a divided land,
I think it’s in their master plan,
To insert US where it says WE.
A war on the workers, ultimately...
They took away our right to strike,
Handed it over to the carriers might
And Laid them tracks all over this land.
To railroad the workers that is their plan!
Chorus.
Stand up. look around...
We the people are starting to make that sound.
Corporations are not people my friend,
Solidarity forever. till the very end!
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8. |
My Dad's Last Ride
05:57
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Dad’s Last Ride for Ron, Utah and Duncan 2012
[ Im just here to take my dad’s last ride
He let the starlight on the rails, get in, his eyes.
He never felt good, just hanging around.
Because the lonesome whistle was his favorite sound. ]
Hey conductor who is your engineer.
If his name is Red , I have a story he needs to hear.
And If he asks who want’s to see him I’m just an old Hobo.
And the son of someone that he used to know.
We sat there a talkin as the sage brush blew by.
Ridin the rails under a clear nevada sky.
Talking about my father and a good friend,
The spirit Utah Phillips is riding the rails again.
He told me you had asked him to hop your train and ride,
And how he wished he’d done that before he died.
He said that was one thing that he had always ment to do,
So he sent me down to take the ride with you.
He rode the railroads and traveled this land.
Collecting stories about a many a man.
Before he died he told me to make this trip.
And now he’s gone he’s packed his last grip..so..
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9. |
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Casey Jones the Union Scab 2013
JP Wright X378252
Fellow workers on the railroad get your head outta the sand,
about ifin when they gonna run one man.
because there's a union culture of scabbery,
between the UTU and The BLE-t.
[ Chorus ]
Casey Jones, There's a lot of them around.
Casey Jones won't put the reverser down!
Casey Jones gonna stick it to me and you...
When they start runnin trains with a one man crew.
This is the way Mr. Debs said it would be,
if we kept up with jurisdiction scabbery.
The carriers have it just the way they like,
with over 13 unions just ichin for a fight!
Back in the day, well we should have merged
and i'm here to tell ya we were on the verge,
of organizin' a union with incredible might,
but now all we have is a terrible plight.
Casey Jones was in the UTU-e.
Casey said screw the BLE!
If you don't know what I'm talkin about-
Better study up on our history!
The BLE, well they were afraid too.,
with the GCA committees screamin' what are we gonna do?
So they got together and fired their president,
and that's just a little of how the story went!
[ Chorus ]
Enginner, Conductor, Train Service Employee,
Utility road positions, a blurrin of craft autonomy!
Railroads have been thinkin years ahead.
and our unions seem to be playin dead!
Casey say's "they won't run one man!
The FRA and unions are gonna make a stand!"
but they used to have 5 and now they got 2,
when they sold us out and sidetracked the caboose!
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10. |
Walk You To The Door
04:18
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11. |
Solidarity Forever
03:28
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The fact that an obscure labor editor happened to write a song like that is of no particular historical importance. What is important is that it was written at all, timed as it was, almost to a split second, to indicate a tide in the affairs of men that was destined to put a large part of the world's population either behind the Iron Curtain of totalitarian statism or in the uneasy rocking chairs of the Welfare State. In spite of intentions that were emphatically otherwise, that seems to be the sour note on which the story ended – the story of the song, that is – not the story of the turbulent era of pioneering labor history that went into its making. If the people who read these lines are of familiarly with the conditions from “Solidarity Forever” emerged, they will more than likely be unable to understand the significance of the banner headlines in the morning newspapers.
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John Paul Wright Louisville, Kentucky
John Paul Wright is a community organizer, union organizer / Labor Singer and Djembe player. Working Locomotive Engineer and Folk Musician.. a man of many hats..
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