Tune:  “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle

Mary came to America from Ireland

She married Frank Jones, a union man.

She raised her four children in Tennessee
Till the yellow fever took her family.

In the Knights of Labor she found a new home,

And she took on the workers’ cause as her own.

She became an agitator for workers’ rights

And she spoke with passion about their plight.

As time went on it became well known

The workers had a friend in old Mother Jones.

You could find her on dozens of picket lines,

Standing with the workers from the mills and the mines.

She marched and she rallied and she organized

With a fire in her heart and steel in her eyes.

The state militia and the company thugs

Threatened her life with their guns and their clubs

And the cops and the judges threw her in jail

But all of their threats came to no avail,

‘Cause she had the courage in her blood and her bones

And they couldn’t intimidate old Mother Jones.

Mother Mary Jones, fightin’ for the poor!

Mother Mary Jones, kickin’ down the door!

Mother Mary Jones, Mother Mary Jones

Mother Mary Jones. Mother Mary Jones.

Mother Mary Jones, Mother Mary Jones

Now Mother Jones lived to a ripe old age,

But she never lost her passion and her plain outrage.

She battled injustice and inequity

And to lift the workers out of poverty.

She spent half a century kickin’ ass

To make a better life for the working class.

In 1930 she passed away,

But her fighting spirit lives on today.

Let’s cultivate the fruit from the seeds she’s sown

And carry on the work of old Mother Jones.

Mother Mary Jones, fightin’ for the poor!

Mother Mary Jones, breakin’ down the door!

Mother Mary Jones, Mother Mary Jones

Mother Mary Jones. Mother Mary Jones.

Mother Mary Jones, Mother Mary Jones

Copyright by Paul McKenna 2015