1913 massacre

take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen

to calumet

michigan in the copper country

i'll take you to a place called italian hall

and the miners are having their big christmas ball

i'll take you in a door and up a high stairs

singing and dancing is heard ev'rywhere

i'll let you shake hands with the people you see

and watch the kids dance 'round the big christmas tree. there's talking and laughing and songs in the air

and the spirit of christmas is there ev'rywhere

before you know it you're friends with us all

and you're dancing around and around in the hall

you ask about work and you ask about pay

they'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day

working their copper claims

risking their lives

so it's fun to spend christmas with children and wives. a little girl sits down by the christmas tree lights

to play the piano so you gotta keep quiet

to hear all this fun; you would not realize

that the copper boss thug men are milling outside

the copper boss thugs stuck their heads in the door

one of them yelled and he screamed

there's a fire"