[Home Page [Programme [Songs [Performances [Links]

Sea Green Singers - Hold the Fort (score on 1 page) - Score on two pages (verse and chorus): Verse; Chorus



Hold the Fort - Music: Philip P. Bliss 1870 - originally a hymn

1. We meet today in freedom's cause
And raise our voices high;
We'll join our hands in union strong
To battle or to die.

CHORUS:
Hold the fort for we are coming.
Union men, be strong!
Side by side we battle onward;
Victory will come.

2. Look, my comrades, see the union
Banners waving high.
Reinforcements now appearing,
Victory is nigh.

3. See our numbers still increasing;
Hear the bugle blow.
By our union we shall triumph
Over every foe.

4. Fierce and long the battle rages
But we will not fear.
Help will come whene'er it's needed.
Cheer, my comrades, cheer.

Notes:

According to Labor Arts this had been recorded by the Manhattan chorus on Timely Records in 1937. "Hold the Fort is based on the lyrics of a song sung by the British Transport Workers Union, with music by Philip Bliss. Its origins date back to the Civil War and then the Knights of Labor in the 1880s, before being adapted by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)."