A “promotional record” for the United Steel Workers of America. Proceeds were donated to foodbanks for the unemployed steelworkers.
The industrial backbone of the Mon & Ohio valleys has grown weak and brittle in recent years. As the furnaces cool and the whistles fall silent, more and more workers in the primes of their productive lives find themselves uneasily idle. To 18 year old Mike Pickering of Wellsville, Ohio, the final whistle at the Crucible Steel Division at Midland, Pennsylvania, in October, held a special message. Mike’s uncle, Bob Sullivan, had been a steelworker for 18 years until the Midland MIll shut down. Suddenly, the frustration, the anger and sense of hopelessness that has been haunting the families of steelworkers throughout the Tri-State area hit home hard and Mike’s feelings came out in this moving song, “Steel Mill Blues.” (Bomarr Monk, WFMU)
Original vinyl recording found in LBHS’s industrial history collection.
Mike Pickering – Steel Mill Blues
- Engineered At – Aircraft Recording Studios
- Distributed By – National Record Mart
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Barn Burner Music
- Engineer – Barney Lee
- Instruments [Bkgrd Instruments] – Gary Hohman
- Producer – Barney Lee, Gary Hohman
- Vocals, Guitar – Mike Pickering (4)
- Written-By – Mike Pickering (4)
Different picture sleeve with Cover Art by Tom Powers
See also:
- The United Steelworkers union Tuesday sent copies of a record that has been called an ‘anthem for the unemployed’ to President Reagan and members of Congress.
- Mention in Billboard Magazine, March 5, 1983. Page 59.
