“I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you or me. Says I, but Joe you’re ten years dead. I never died said he.”
Member along with Helen Keller and countless thousands of the American revolutionary union the International Workers of the World or Wobblies as they are known - an incredible songwriter as well and murdered by a firing squad in 1915 after getting falsely accused and convicted of the murder of a former policeman.
Immortalised forever in the 1930 poem ‘I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night’ by Alfred Hayes and turned into a song by Earl Robinson and sung by various folk singers, the most famous version of course sung at Woodstock by Joan Baez.
This biopic of his life is excellent - if you want a glimpse of the American left pre-intersectionality and its relevance to the concerns of the everyday human being this is one to watch.