Scissor Bill
DESCRIPTION: "You may ramble 'round the country anywhere you will, You'll always run across that same old Scissor Bill." "He looks just like a human," but "He is the missing link that Darwin tried to trace." He hates foreigners and won't join the union
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill / Music: "Steamoat Bill"
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (I. W. W. Songbook, 5th edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad | IWW Darwin
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 547, "Scissor Bill" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, p. 29, "Scissor Bill" (1 text)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 246-247, "Scissor Bill" (1 text)
Roud #7991
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Steamboat Bill" (tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Although the listed tune of this is "Steamboat Bill," I suspect it was sung to "Casey Jones." Of course, those two are closely related.
One of Scissor Bill's lines is "This country must be freed From Niggers, Japs and Dutchmen and the gol durn Swede." Was the "gol durn Swede" Joe Hill himself?
For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC547
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