Which Side Are You On? -- Ani Difranco on Mountain Stage
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences symphony hall. This song has a lot of history, and has been perfomed by a lot of great musicians, of course Ani Difranco most recently, but also Billy Bragg, Natalie Merchant, Pete Seeger, etc.
"Which Side Are You On?" was a song written by Florence Reece in 1931. She was the wife of a union organizer for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky. In 1931 the miners of that region were locked in a bitter and violent struggle with the mine owners. In an attempt to intimidate the Reece family, deputies hired by the mining company illegally entered and searched the Reece family home. Sam Reece had been warned in advance and escaped, but Florence and their children were terrorized in his place. That night, after the men had gone, Florence wrote the lyrics to "Which Side Are You On?" on a calendar that hung in the kitchen of her home. She took the melody from a traditional Baptist hymn, "Lay the Lily Low", or the traditional ballad "Jack Munro". Florence recorded the song and it can be heard on the CD Coal Mining Women.
Reece supported a second wave of miner strikes circa 1973, as recounted in the documentary Harlan County USA. She and others perform "Which Side Are You On?" a number of times throughout.
The song is referred to by Bob Dylan in the song "Desolation Row".
For folks complaining: Pete changed the lyrics of songs all the time, sometimes even between shows! Trust me, he'd approve of this version too. Music is music, and artists are allowed to do with it what they want. Don't believe me? Just check out the Seeger versions of Over the Rainbow - he changes the pronouns and in at least one adds a verse.
Isn't this version defending the violence of Democrats like Obama?
Adapting the verses is the point of folk music. Make it relevant to the struggle of our times or gtfo. Viva DiFranco
@@gklagan the struggle to arm Nazis in Ukraine, or bomb weddings in Yemen?
Ani DiFranco understands that coal miners have to fight daily for a safe & healthy workplace, just as they did when Florence Reece wrote this classic labor anthem in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931. To hear how miners who make safety complaints today are treated by outlaw coal operators, check out Raymond Crooke's song "Big Coal Don't Like This Man At All" on CZcams. 1293. Big Coal Don't Like This Man At All (Original) - with Marco Acca on guitar It tells the true story of Kentucky coal miner Charles Scott Howard, who stood up for safety at an underground mine operated by Arch Coal and was fired as a result. He filed a whistleblower case, won his job back and is working in the mines again!
Ani DiFranco 'messed with the verses' in a very pleasant way, updating and enlarging the message of the song. Thanks for sharing the performance.
She ruined it completely. Fuck feminism, it's egalitarianism that we need.
Feminism is part of egalitarianism, just as black lives matter, the indigenous movement, the anti-war movement, the environmental movement and Occupy Wall Street. Ani di Franco explains in this version how many of these issues are connected. In fact she revives an old folk tradition of updating the content of traditionals. Lets value every artist with the guts to fight for a common cause instead of only cherishing their own career. Sadly enough voting may not help a lot now in the U.S., the options all seem grim since Sanders backed down. But a change is gonna come nevertheless.
Pete's gone on.
It's on you, now, Ms diFranco.
Great version!!! Thanks Ani !!!!
Awesome Ani
@gb39322 it's a tenor guitar! she usually tunes it ADAD or thereabouts... at least she used to? sounds like it anyway
niiice a tenor guitar!
Linda, the credit to Ms. Reece is already in the song info, but you have to click the down arrow to show it all. Thanks for adding.
❤❤❤.
"I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side..."
Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, Justice ain’t an “anybody”... it just IS... and it’s the RIGHT side.
yay radio 4 :))
If any musicians out there have figured out how to play this on a guitar, please let me know. Ani's playing some kind of custom 4 string instrument here, in some open tuning, so I can't even begin to figure out for a 6 string guitar...thanks in advance!
+Rick Casey it's a tenor guitar , not some kind of custom 4 string guitar, I have one and it's tuned like a mandola ,in 5ths
+Valerio Vitullo , hey, thanks, yeah I had figured that out by now, thx to other music friends...
Rick Casey. Seems like it's two chords that can be played on regularly tuned guitar. The chords can differ depending upon the key. If this sounds like I know what I'm talking about.... not that much...I need someone to suggest the simple chords.
I love Ani but I'll choose the Dropkick Murphys version every time.
I love the DM's, but not going to throw any share on Ani doing her thing either.
Love this and wish it were so. I no longer believe that the man in the Whitehouse gives a **** about workers.
The 2000 election would not have changed things much... the system is fucked
OK. Pete Seeger. She is very smart, very good and... very cute
Isismusicnow not Pete's song. He covered it too.
How's that guitar strung?
That was really great. Woody guthrie song right?
Isismusicnow Florence Reece.
She's playing a tenor guitar. I wonder which tuning she's using (tenor banjo or guitar) and what the chords are.
etanbenami Absbabsaff
Which side?? Why not a new one.
Will you be a Union man or a THUG for J.H. Blair?
Are you part of the solution, or are you part of the con...
Not the song as I remember it when Pete sang it.
eurydicejones it's not Pete's song. And we like Pete too, but why do you have to judge other people who do the song?!
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don't criticize what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times, they are a-changin'
Ani likes back-up since when?!?! Last time I saw her in concert she stopped her show to tell her fans to stop singing because no one paid to come hear THEM sing.
I've seen ani live dozens of times and she's never done that
Maybe they crowd were terrible singers and it was throwing her game off?! Lmao
I've seen Ani so many times,she always encouraged sing alongs
She may not be a pretty girl, but she's a beautiful woman.
"Folks in Washington who care about what's on our minds" speaking of Obama. Funny as hell. Which side was he on? The bankers
She'd get along well with Pol Pot and Castro.
Nice false equivalence you got there. It'd be shame if something happened to it.
@@andrewscease8185 I should have included Stalin and MAO
Only reason big business is bad is because our increasingly socialist government is bailing them out and 'giving them a leg up'.
In a true free market system with no government interference, there are no 'big businesses', but many smaller local businesses more associated with and dependent on their local communities...