Contact The Union

[Junior]

Hi I noticed in some of the earlier Dead songs that there is what seems to me an anti-union bias. There is in "Alligator" the line "contact (contract?) the union put the beggars to rout" and in Cumberland Blues there is "sometimes the poor man got to walk the line just to pay his union dues"
The Dead are heavily influenced by Ken Kesey, whose second novel Sometimes A Great Notion is basically how a heroic logger refuses to join the "evil" union. I wonder if the young Dead chafed at having to get union cards.. I wonder if now that they are successful musicians they don't appreciate the benefits for themselves and their crew members, of being union members. As far as I know the JA family hasn't addressed this, but Hunter is sort of connected as he worked with Freiberg.. anyway Kantner has always been a big endorser of the Weavers, and one can easily guess what they would have thought of the anti-union onslought in the media and in state legislatures etc, and from young lyricists
Bye for now

[Junior]

Hi i don't usually reply to myself but i'm too lazy to invent another avatar now
I remembered that Joey Covington suposedly met papa John Creach at the Musicians Union in Los Angeles. So whatever your politics, at least One good thing came from the union movement

[Susan Butcher]

I've always paid my dues, even though the unions I've belonged to couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding. Most of them are like that, despite what the papers say.

[jimmie ray]

My new job has me in a union for the first time, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to the attitude many of my coworkers carry. These bums know how to manipulate every rule to get out of doing any work, and file bullshit grievances against management. I know unions were important in changing how workers were abused many decades ago - but now it's the other way around. I've also been perterbed to hear Jorma announce there will be no encore at some NY shows, because of the of the stagehand union's restrictions. F-U nions!!!

[Princess Aiko]

It's actually CONTRACT the Union put the beggars to rout. The Union goons would supposedly turn on their working-class brothers and sisters who have been reduced to begging by the 1% and put them to rout.
If you are using headphones it will cause earwax, I suggest murine regularly (NOT the eye wash, the ear wash) which may account for the mis-heard lyrics.
Mother's advice (YES, MOTHER) : do not try to stuff anything in your ears smaller than an elbow