The Wobbly activist and songwriter Joe Hill, who was executed in Utah for a murder he probably did not commit, was born on this day 134 years ago in Gavle, Sweden.
His best-known song is probably “The Preacher and the Slave,” which mocked Salvation Army preachers who assured the poor of a better life in the world to come.
Although Joan Baez performed a memorable version of “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill” at Woodstock in 1969, I especially like Billy Bragg’s version of Phil Ochs’s “Joe Hill,” which tells the story of his life.
