Rosalie Sorrels - Goodbye Joe Hill

      A song dedicated to Joe Hill , the great social shaker and songwriter killed by the State of Utah in 1915,
Tom Joad , the protagonist of "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck,
Gene Debs (1855-1926), historical leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
and Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970), a pacifist and anarchist Christian who was the founder of the "Joe Hill House",
home of the Catholic Worker Movement in Salt Lake City

[Verse 1]
E                                            B
Goodbye, Joe Hill, we've had some good times here.
                                 E
I wish you could stay around for just another year.
                                     A
But the battle line keeps movin' and I know that you can't stay.
B                                        E
I guess sometimes it just works out that way.

[Verse 2]
                                            B
Goodbye, Tom Joad, we'll meet, I don't know where.
                                                   E
We're a better kind of people for knowin' you were here.
                                   A
It was a damn good fight, Tom, but we lost and that's a shame;
B                                        E
I'm glad we stood and fought it, all the same.

[Verse 3]
E
Goodbye, Gene Debs, I know just where you'll be:
 B                              A               E
"While there's a man in prison, my soul can not be free."
                                                    A
Well, Gene, you tried to change them, but they beat you in the end;
D#m                            E
I'm glad that we had you for a friend.

[Verse 4]
E                                                B
And Ammon, you old rebel, it's just another round.
                               A      E
Takes more than politicians to keep a rebel down.
                                        A
There's one thing I know for certain, I swear by God it's true:
B                                           E
This blue-nosed town ain't seen the last of you.

[Verse 5]
E
So long, Joe Hill. So long, but not goodbye.
B                                        A             E
You're off to teach some grafters how to sizzle and to fry.
                                         A
But someday we're going to need you Joe, you and all your friends,
B                               E
We'll never have to say goodbye again.