Lyrically Speaking: Bread + Roses
“We Want Bread and Roses, Too” is a famous slogan from the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile mill strike of 1912 that is often called “The Bread and Roses Strike”. Originally, “Bread and Roses” is from a speech given by suffragist Helen Todd in 1910 that later inspired a poem by James Oppenheim in 1911. In writing this song, I considered the profound meaning behind this simple demand.
Bread is a symbol of the means to support your family. Literally to put food on the table, but also to make sure your children are clothed, they can attend school, your home is heated, and that the basic necessities of living are taken care of. This is one of the rationales for why we work, to earn a living to support our families. But this slogan isn’t just demanding bread, it demands roses too.
Roses represent the beauty in the world. To experience and enjoy human created beauty in music and the arts, as well as, the opportunity to enjoy the natural beauty of the world around us. To be able to spend time with our families and friends and have time to simply enjoy life.
For the immigrants and workers who took part in the labor strikes of early 20th century America, life was spent working from before sunrise to after sunset in incredibly dangerous factories, mines, railroads, plantations, shipyards, lumber yards, and meat packing facilities for starvation wages; only to come home to squalid living conditions in the tenements and ghettos. Too often the cost of a “better life” in America was lost limbs, lives, spouses, and children. In contrast, the business owners reaped incredible profits from this cheap and expendable labor force and enjoyed every luxury the world could offer.
Other Americans did not come here by choice. The horrific economics and inhumanity of slavery and the continued oppression of Blacks and POC in this country are wrapped into this story as well. When we consider the incredible debt that is owed to those who gave their lives and blood to build this country, it is appalling that we are still fighting just to breathe.
When writing the song, I treat the concept of “Bread and Roses” as universal. Instead of telling the story of one strike in one community, my goal was to weave this conceptual thread through the fabric of humanity and time. At the core of every social movement there is a demand for justice, for equal treatment, and for a better a life. For “Bread and Roses, Too”.
Through out the song I reference other songs by title:
Bella Ciao is an Italian folk song originally sung in Northern Italy by the mondina workers protesting the harsh working conditions in the paddy fields. It evolved into an Anti-Fascist song during World War II and was sung by the Italian Resistance. It is now an Anti-Fascist hymn world wide. My connection to Italy, specifically Sicily, makes this song personally significant.
If I Had a Hammer written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays became a popular hit by Peter, Paul, and Mary during the Civil Rights Movement. I use the idea of a hammer as a demolition force to break down oppressive structures. In the next line I use the hammer as a constructive force to build structures that are “level, honest, and true”.
Sixteen Tons was written by Merle Travis about coal miners. “You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store”.
The Hardest Mile was written by The Dropkick Murphys in tribute to the 57 Irish immigrants who were hired in 1832 to lay railroad track for the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in a valley known today as Duffy’s Cut. It didn’t go well for those Irish immigrants.
From the Folks Who Brought You The Weekend by Priscilla Murolo is a short illustrated history of labor in the United States. It is not a song but it is a great resource for those wishing to read an overview of labor in the United States.
This Land is Your Land by Woodie Guthrie is probably the most popular folk song in America. Written as a critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, most people are familiar with three verses and the refrain. However, there are two other verses that deal with private property and bread lines in the original version that didn’t resurface until the 1960’s. Today they are still largely forgotten.
“Bread + Roses”
Shouldn’t our lives be something more than work? Are we not more than human resources and human capital stock to be exploited for economic gain? Isn’t there something more than the sum of the hours of our lives spent in toil?
I believe in a different world and that world is worth fighting for, powerfully and peacefully, so that everyone can have “Bread and Roses, too”.
Thanks for reading and listening,
Josh