Going on Strike

Annotation — Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs

The soul track "Going on Strike" (Volt Records # VOS-6008) looked at the position of a soldier's woman left on the home front, waiting for her man to return, and faced with male attention and the opportunities to have fun without their loved one. So the narrator tells us that she has been "sitting up crying" reading the newspaper, and receiving letters, that "keep bothering me about Vietnam". She is also receiving invitations to "all night parties" from people, including her man's best friends, who have "been thinking" they have a chance with her. However, she decides that she is going on strike "until my baby comes back". Female vocal group The Emotions, from Chicago, featured the four sisters Jeanette Hutchinson, Wanda Hutchinson, Sheila Hutchinson (who composed the song), and Pamela Hutchinson, as well as Theresa Davis. The song was released on a Stax Records R&B subsidiary.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Track A3. Producers David Porter, Isaac Hayes; arranged by Isaac Hayes. Matrix (variant r10635497): VOL-0071 / VOL-0072; label variation blue with lightning bolt at right. Stax spotlight: each Hutchinson sister credited as writer on the album, with contributions from Pervis Staples. Reissued on CD with Untouched (Stax SCD-88029-2, 1996).

About the artist

Female vocal group formed in Chicago in 1957 by Joe Hutchinson with daughters Sheila, Wanda and Jeanette (first as the Hutchinson Sunbeams), signing to Stax's Volt label in 1968 as The Emotions; later major hits included "Best of My Love". [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Home Front Perspective · Soldier Boy · Mail Call

In collections

US Domestic Perspective Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs