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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Joe Hill's "Power in a Union"

As I mentioned in my first blog/album note about my latest album, singing Power in the Blood (at Trinity Baptist Church, Amarillo, Texas) was thrilling. Some hymns soothe, others exalt, this one ROCKS!
Get the latest edition of the Little Red Songbook or the others still out there as reprints and you'll see the changes I chose to make to Joe Hill's words. My changes are in the public domain. The edition I used most was the 1923 version.
Please scroll down for all the blogs about my new album When Hymns Bled Red: Words of Joe Hill in Red. And please check them out on Spotify or your favorite source of streaming music. Gosh, you might even buy a song from iTunes. I've got five albums out.
God help me, I couldn't get this song sung without sounding like an old, congested man. (See my blogs on Colorado marijuana) -)



There Is Power In the Blood

A                                            D              A
Would your be free from your burden of sin?
           E                            A
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood.
                            D         A
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
           E                               A
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.
                            D                      A
There’s pow’r, pow’r wonder working pow’r
           E                 A
In the blood of the Lamb
                             D                         A                 E7                               A
Ther is pow’r, pow’r, wonder working pow’r in the precious blood of the lamb.

 There Is Power In a Union
By Joe Hill     

Would you have freedom from wage slavery,
Then join in the grand industrial band;
Would you from mise’y and hunger be free?
Then come! Do your share, like a man.

Chorus
There is pow’r,  pow’r
In a band of workingmen,
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a power, that’s a power that must rule in every land –
One Industrial Union Grand.

Would you have mansions of gold in the sky,
And raise your kids in a shack, way in the back?
Would you have wings up in heaven to fly
And starve here with rags on your back?




Chorus
There is pow’r,  pow’r
In a band of working women,
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a power, that’s a power that must rule in every land –
One Industrial Union Grand.


If you believe corporations and all they’ve said
Then don’t organize, all unions despise,
If you want nothing before you are dead,
Shake hands with the boss and look wise.

Chorus
There is pow’r,  pow’r
In a band of working humans,
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a power, that’s a power that must rule in every land –
One Industrial Union Grand.


Come, all ye workers, from every land,
Come join in the grand Industrial band,
Then we our share of this earth shall demand,
Come on! Do your share, like a human.

Chorus
There is pow’r,  pow’r
In a band of working humans,
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a power, that’s a power that must rule in every land –
One Industrial Union Grand.


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