Huh, that glitch didn't show up in the studio! Guess I'll make another demo of this in the coming days and weeks.

I’m a carpenter by trade, for a solid union wage 
for contractors we build up the Twin Cities
And as summers come and went, my apprenticeship was spent 
Raising bridges across the Mississippi 
But before my station rose, I was deckhand on the tows
And the river and I have an understanding 
That I stay tied off up here, and away from her keep clear 
But if I fall she’ll mangle me on landing 

Chorus
I’ve built bridges and the byways from the river to the highways
Above the river and the traffic rolling 
 I’ve raised scaffolding and forms til my boots were wrecked and worn 
Now I whistle ‘cross the bridges as I’m strollin’

We were working in the sleet on the deck below 3rd street
And when break time came my bro took off his yo-yo
Then it whipped around and sped, and it clipped me in the head
And damn near left my partner working solo
I hung over the edge, ‘bove the waterfall and ledge
And the killer yo-yo snapped back to its anchor 
Thank God I still had mine and it held me on the line 
Lucky as the richest Wall Street banker 

When 10th street was re-decked, the whole span was almost wrecked 
When they tried to pull the Quik-Shield ‘cross the river 
We stretched cables there and back, and ratcheted the slack 
So tight that the steel would barely quiver 
Then we threw the deck on top, ‘til we got the word to stop
For the engineers re-did their calculations 
And the tension and the weight would pull the piers down straight 
And earn us all a ticket to damnation

One day as I built brackets I was startled by a racket 
Of a half a ton of treated timber landing
when a stack of 4x4s tumbled down 3 floors 
and fell onto the spot where I’d been standin’
Well the men up top were hushed for they figured I was crushed 
And the man who cut the bundle took the blame 
Be no sin, if I were pissed, but I shouted up “You missed!”
 And I hollered at the man to mind his aim 

Buildin’ spans from rim to rim we risked our lives and limbs
To keep the Minneapolis bridges standin’
So no more tragic days will come our city’s way
When infrastructure upkeep is abandoned 
From Northeast to the South Side they’re each my joy and pride 
Risin’ up above the city’s rubble 
For fortune took her shots, and I’ve taken all my knocks 
And taken home the paycheck for my trouble

Minneapolis Bridges

Working my way through the 60+ unrecorded songs I have lying around, here's simple bluesy ditty about the changes in my neighborhood. The Ford Plant has closed down some years ago as part of the company's plan to offshore production to countries with cheap labor in order to reap bigger profits and to break the bargaining power of unions here. The process of globalization was enabled by the rise of technologies such as telecommunications and the intermodal shipping container, mentioned as the "box they buried the unions in". Back when the IWW/GDC was around, we once picketed a Ford dealership in solidarity with a fired CNT organizer in Spain and passed out literature explaining the whole shtick: They bust unions over there to bust them here! 

My own union brothers and sisters in the Trades are working to turn the old site into a new neighborhood, but like most neighborhoods coming up in the Twin Cities, "affordability" is a matter of class and perspective. Meanwhile, a large chunk of the construction work in the metro is done by non-union crews, many of them made up of workers who undocumented or even trafficked outright, in a system of exploitation that begins with colonialism, carries on to the border, and ends in contractor's wallets. It is yet another race to the bottom pitting workers against each other. Ironically, our own tax dollars fund much of the terror and repression of workers in Latin America, while America's drug habits help fund the cartels. The "respectable" capitalists and their state, and narco-capitalists, of course, are deeply intertwined. If cops are another gang, after all, the gangs are other cops. 

Also mentioned: The river's commercial barge traffic no longer extends to the Port of Minneapolis, due to the threat of invasive carp but also the long-term failure of the Port to attract much commerce that couldn't be done down in St Paul. The old port site is now the subject of re-development and community struggles against gentrification.
C F 
There’s no barges anymore on the Minneapolis run
C G
Hauling scrap up north for the Northern Metals yard 
C E7 F
They said it was the carp when they closed Lock Number 1
C G C
But the port never got busy, and times were already hard
Now there’s no more need for power over on the East Bank
Where the Ford plant kept on running since they built the model T
There’s nothing left but sand tunnels underneath the bluff
And the neighborhood that’s going up with the Ryan company

Chorus:
F C
Now the assembly lines are silent, and the rail tracks are rusting
F C G
And the river rolls on through the old lock and dam 
C E7 F
And the cars come and go, built in China or in Mexico
C G C
All along the Ford Parkway with the flag of Uncle Sam

The CP train rolls slow, cars say Maersk or Matson
And those boxes are the coffin they buried the union in 
reaping what we sewed, they build it down in Mexico
Race you to the bottom ‘til we’re both poor as sin
And the president’s rehearsed sayin’ put America first
and he says he’ll build a wall like the one in Berlin town
But money moves more free, than the likes of you and me
And money finds its level and then it drags you down 

Chorus

There’s a crew up on the roof, pounding on the shingles
And a crew whose picks and shovel must have moved a hundred tons
And they crossed the Rio Grande to find the Mississippi
Were they running from the soldiers? Did our taxes buy the guns? 
Or were they just lookin’ for some place to call a home
now we build these condos with the rooms already sold
And the families from the Ford plant are moving out of Highland
Cause the rent’s too high for living, and there’s nothing here to hold

Ford Parkway Blues

Folk musician, carpenter, and anarchist. Former member of the Wooden Shoe Ramblers. 
Website: https://edoylemusic.weebly.com/
Bandcamp: https://emmettdoyle.bandcamp.com/album/rust-belt-ballads
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmettdoyle
WSR: https://woodenshoeramblers.bandcamp.com/releases

Ford Parkway Blues

Emmett Doyle

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Emmett Doyle

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