Song picture
The Mining Museum
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acoustic folk social commentary political satire western massachusetts oil coal climate change fracking incineration music for social change nuclear energy
Folk singer, social commentary, satire, people's stories, children's music
Hi Folks, The Bard Insurgent here. My comrade D.O. (the Poet Roofer) and I got that handle (The Bard Insurgents) from traveling town to town performing songs and poetry about people's lives. I've been performing since I was 3 years old, cutting my vocal chords on liturgical and classical music. I was a concert soloist as a child, when I wasn't herding cows, throwing hay and shoveling manure. During the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam war, I began writing songs about social change. I left the country in 1970 and my dozen years in other countries, mostly in Africa & South America, have provided a global perspective to my music. My travels helped me realize that people all around the world are essentially the same in their basic life needs and their desires to live peacefully in their communities. These experiences have informed my commitment to working for international understanding as I organize at home. A powerful way to educate and inspire is with music. I tell people's stories, do social commentary with a touch of satire that I hope you enjoy and share with your friends, as well as sing together in the streets and in your living rooms. I also have children's music written for the children in my life with Jacob and Kayla as primary muses. Looking forward to seeing you on the road, Tom
Song Info
Charts
Peak #56
Peak in subgenre #6
Author
Tom Neilson
Rights
Tom Neilson
Uploaded
December 22, 2012
Track Files
MP3
MP3 4.2 MB 128 kbps 4:35
Story behind the song
The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum is merely one example of how corporate sponsorship dictates the content (what is presented and censored) in museums. The same can be said for news media, textbooks in schools, etc. (see James Loewen, Lies Across America)
Lyrics
The Mining Hall of Fame and Museum In Leadville, CO where Over 90% of the inductees Never sniffed coal miners' air Over 1/2 of them millionaires, Rakin in corporate shares, Put the miners in the mining museum. Put truth in history there. Italien anarchists took out the granite. In Wisconsin, the Cornish dug lead. Chinese Americans panned for the gold & Many of them ended up dead. Finnish socialists took out the copper & Women the coal did haul, Bit white Anglo Saxon protestant men Are the plaques that hang on the wall. Put the miners in the miners' museum. Put history the way it should be Tell of the cancers, not corporate financiers, Give miners' stories to me. Where is Joe Hill? Where is Big Bill? No Columbine organizers Joe they would kill, give Bill 20 to chill, & no one is the wiser. Where are 1000s of tons of uranium waste & radioactive water? Or 100s of millions of gallons of cyanide Flowing in the Alamosa? You can kill miners 1 by 1 With black lung, silicosis,and gas. You can kill 'em in mining explosions, Take out dozens en masse. You can call out the Guard & the state police In the name of Rockefeller. Shoot 'em in camps, on line, or asleep, Any miner dweller. Put the miners in the miners' museum. Put history the way it should be Tell of the cancers, not corporate financiers, Give miners' stories to me. In the midst of a superfund cleanup site, Leadville's story will scare. Put the miners in the mining museum.
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