The Ballad of the Henry 55

strikingly, while the union is hot
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A paean to the 55 brave members of the Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana who, in the year 2000, sat in a building overnight while Edward Burch brought them coffee he’d liberated from the Espresso Royale. NOTE: If you can sing “The Titanic,” you can sing this.

Though it doesn’t follow the lead sheet exactly (it includes some yodel tags and we stretch out the opening of the chorus), here is a live recording of this tune by The Viper & His Famous Orchestra, possibly from late Spring, 2001 (though 2000 would make more sense).

The Viper & His Famous Orchestra, “Ballad of the Henry 55,” May 2001?

Then Edward Burch & LeRoy Bach recorded a wonderful version of this live at the Hideout in Chicago in 2001. My understanding is that is was for a labor song contest, though my knowledge of said contest and its outcome ends there. NOTE: For reasons also not known to me, the song appears to be played in A-flat here rather than its natural key of F.

Edward Burch & LeRoy Bach, “Ballad of the Henry 55,” The Hideout, 2001

the kind of music your great-great-great-grandparents warned your great-great-grandparents about