Here’s an interesting article about the same musician: https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-07-21/why-woody-guthries-guitar-was-a-fascist-killer.html
Relevant paragraph:
Woody Guthrie’s guitar didn’t kill fascists because it fired bullets. It killed by neutralizing the fascists. Music, like culture, has the power to defeat right-wing extremists and their antidemocratic ideas rooted in xenophobia, racism, homophobia and sexism. Guthrie fought using ideas, language, music and the shared desire to build a better future together.
Interesting story. Dropkick Murphys (Boston-Irish punk band) got their first national hit by doing a punk version of “Shipping Out to Boston,” which was a Woody Guthrie taperoom-floor forgotten song. They also just lost one of their lead singer/songwriters last year.
They were trying to figure out what direction to go in, when Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter called them up to say she had found a bunch of other scraps and notes, wondering if they had any interest in putting together an album.
They said “fuck it, sure” and made an album called “This Machine Still Kills Fascists.” It’s not quite my cup of tea, but it resonated with a lot of people. If you’re interested in Guthrie’s music it’s definitely worth a listen. Modernized medium-talent version of his b-sides, basically.
medium-talent
You take that back
I fucking love Murphys, but they even admit that they’re not super talented. Ken Casey once said he didn’t even learn to play bass until their second album.
I play bass. You mean to tell me there are folk who actually know how to play?
Pretty much just Matt Freeman.
That is a really interesting story! I’m sure if he were still alive he’d be very happy to hear some of his works completed.
People should listen to the entirety of Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land rather than the part that’s excerpted that makes it sound super patriotic rah rah America.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?People say it’s against all private property but it only explicitly criticizes private ownership of land. That does not imply Communism, see Georgism.
…is what I would say if I didn’t always twist the lyrics to praise the compact disc 💿
How I sing the song. Warning: Cringe
💿 My pit and your land,
💿 your pit and my land,
💿 from err’r correction
💿 to the sampling theorem
💿 From the Red Book’s premise
💿 to the bitstream coders
💿 CD was made by Sony and Philips.💿 My laser’s gliding
💿 on the spiral pathway,
💿 my cradle keeps it
💿 pointed the right way.
💿 Plastic is never
💿 made ideally
💿 but wobbles are no problem for CD.💿 There may be dust bits
💿 that try to fool me,
💿 disks can be tainted,
💿 varying light intensity
💿 But the extra data
💿 carry everything
💿 I need to get the music error-free💿 Audiophiles
💿 are total dickheads,
💿 claiming they can hear
💿 the “discrete DAC steps”
💿 But Shannon proved that
💿 a low-pass filter
💿 Makes samples match the input perfectly💿 My pit and your land,
💿 your pit and my land,
💿 from err’r correction
💿 to the sampling theorem
💿 From the Red Book’s promise
💿 to the bitstream coders
💿 This was made by Sony and Philips.
Never heard of this guy, but I have a desire now to check out his music. He’d be sickened by life in 2025.
No more than he was by life in the 1930s and 40s. He watched the uncovering of the first Republican/oligarch coup plot. Then watched the man they plotted to assassinate wheel and deal with them to get legislation passed. Instead of trying and hanging them all.
Woody, a socialist, supported the Leninist revolutions. Only to watch their natural evolution. Stalin helping Hitler invade Poland. As well as exterminating ethnic polish in their own borders. Exterminating their own people etc. And all the atrocities of other individual vanguard parties.
He would be disappointed, but not surprised.
Woody, a socialist, supported the Leninist revolutions. Only to watch their natural evolution. Stalin helping Hitler invade Poland. As well as exterminating ethnic polish in their own borders. Exterminating their own people etc. And all the atrocities of other individual vanguard parties.
I mean, he WAS a Stalinist and supported the joint Soviet-Nazi invasion of Poland.
Check out Utah Phillips while you’re at it.
It’s hard to be nice about this. But I’ll try. Assuming you’re from the US, start with indigenous music, I’m particular to rock and rap from the northwest. Move on to spirituals or work songs from the deep south, then jazz, particularly in Chicago during the Great Migration, then move on to folk music like Guthrie, then maybe skip another few decades and you’ve got rage against the machine and others.
Music then. Internet today.
Before anyone thinks Woody was some kind of pacifist, they should check out his songs “Miss Pavlichenko” or “Jarama Valley”.
