To the memory of Alexei Navalny

“Joe Hill ain’t dead,” he says to me,
“Joe Hill ain’t never died…
Where working men are out on strike
Joe Hill is at their side,
Joe Hill is at their side.”

Listening to Alexei Sayle’s Desert Island Discs a while back, it was interesting to me that he chose “Joe Hill” as one of his eight discs, recalling that it was performed at his mother’s funeral. I first heard “Joe Hill” on the Woodstock soundtrack, sung by Joan Baez. Never a great admirer of her precise and pure voice, I nevertheless loved the song. I next heard it in the 1971 Bo Widerberg film biopic, for which guitarist Stefan Grossman did the score. When I listen to it sung, usually as a folk ballad, I always think it’s too sweet — and the version by Baez played on DID was a Nashville studio recording, with a prominent and syrupy pedal steel part. I recorded it a few years ago with the aim of making an angry industrial version, piston-driven and distorted. At one point I felt it needed a rap section and cast around for someone that may fit the bill. My friend Mark put me in touch with painter and wordsmith Nathan Detroit, who, with no real brief from me, came up with something he calls Cyborging — an abstract and impressionistic flow of words. Sounded great to me, so one afternoon we recorded it. Here it is. Play it loud.

“I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” was a poem, originally, written by Alfred Hayes (1911-1985), a British-born screenwriter, television writer, novelist and poet. It was set to music by folk singer and arranger Earl Robinson. The song became a popular labour anthem and was recorded by Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez, among others.