Woodie Guthrie's New Years Resolution List, 1942

Business Insider ^ | Dec. 31, 1941 /Dec. 27, 2013 | Woody Guthrie

[Mrs. Don-o]

If you're having trouble nailing down your New Year's resolutions, here's a good place to start.

Seventy years ago, American folk legend Woody Guthrie scribbled in his journal a list of 33 tasks he would dedicate himself to in the coming year. According to WoodyGuthrie.org, he called them "Rulin's."

At age 31, he was in the prime of his life, with a wife and three kids, as well as a good deal of life experience, having survived the Dust Bowl to make it out to California.

As a result, it's a pretty unbeatable list. Check it out:

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1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
3. Wash teeth if any
4. Shave
5. Take bath
6. Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk
7. Drink very scant if any
8. Write a song a day
9. Wear clean clothes — look good
10. Shine shoes
11. Change socks
12. Change bed cloths often
13. Read lots good books
14. Listen to radio a lot
15. Learn people better
16. Keep rancho clean
17. Dont get lonesome
18. Stay glad
19. Keep hoping machine running
20. Dream good
21. Bank all extra money 22. Save dough
23. Have company but dont waste time
24. Send Mary and kids money
25. Play and sing good
26. Dance better
27. Help win war — beat fascism
28. Love mama
29. Love papa
30. Love Pete
31. Love everybody
32. Make up your mind
33. Wake up and fight

[Fiji Hill]

I still don’t think there’s anything Communist in the lyrics of “This Land is Your Land.”

The song doesn't start turning left until you get to the fourth verse:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

[Bernard Marx]

FYI,

An Explanation

I'm sure this won't satisfy my critics but I have no doubts. The song became the hymn of the New Left in the Sixties, as performed by those well-known "Republicans," Peter, Paul and Mary.

[Tax-chick]

I’ve never seen those word before. Pretty darned opaque ... they were left out by my elementary school teachers, I suppose.

[Gay State Conservative]

I once saw a photo of Woody with his guitar.On that guitar was plainly written “this guitar kills fascists”.The problem I have with that is that there wasn't a word mentioned of Communists.

[Scoutmaster]

Re: This Land Is Your Land. I notice most of Woody's fans forget to sing this verse:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "Private Property."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

Sometimes "Private Property" is replaced with "No Trespassing," but the thought's the same.

[Tax-chick]

Oh, now I see. As I said above, we didn’t sing that verse in the elementary school choir.

[Scoutmaster]

It's a pretty safe bet that Comrade Woody's list of New Years resolutions for 1941 contained nothing whatsoever about beating fascism.

By 1943, Guthrie had a "This Machine Kills Fascists" sticker on the front of his guitar. In 1945, he switched to a Gibson Southern Jumbo and put a larger sticker with the same message on that guitar.

Guthrie viewed freedom vs. fascism as the ultimate battle.

As for socialism or communism, that may be another matter (although Guthrie wrote several anti-Hitler songs).

[Mrs. Don-o]

On second thought: hippie? More like a redneck or hillbilly, I think.

His 1943 autobiography, "Bound for Glory," would go a long way to explain the distinction.

The biggest difference was that Guthrie was born to genuine hardship, and worked every kind of job during the Great Depression to survive: fruit picker, stevedore, merchant marine, farmhand, street musician, cannery hand. He learned what would later be called "folk music," not from "folk music festivals" or recordings, but from other migrants, dock-hands, and bar singers, often down-and-outers, and of all accents and colors.

He said, "I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."

Not a hippie attitude.

[what's up]

Guthrie was a communist agitator.

In other words he was not a good person.

[Let_It_Be_So]

Thank you. Very informative.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Woodie was a Communist. “This Land is Your Land” was a response to Kate Smith's “God Bless America,” written by George Gershwin.

[Sivad]

Guthrie’s list really tells us nothing really about his politics.
Obviously there are some aspects to life that are apolitical.

The song “This Land is Your Land” can be taken however one
chooses and maybe he meant it that way. If you include the
lyrics in the context of what he preached you might well believe
it is a commie theme song. If my memory serves me, often lefty
protesters in the ‘60s sang it along with Joan Baez and Peter, Paul
and Mary protest songs.

BTW, Karl Marx had a nanny for his kids and often had to borrow
money to pay her or didn’t pay her at all from time to time.
Socialism is always for the other guy but not for me.

[what's up]

There is a verse in the song that explicitly talks down private property.

Through the years the verse was never sung. Obama had it sung at his inauguration. True!

[left that other site]

I think you meant Irving Berlin, Not George Gershwin.

But it’s the THOUGHT that counts! LOL! :-)

[Fiji Hill]

I like Jack Guthrie, Woody's cousin. Some say that his "Oakie Boogie" was the first rock and roll song.

Oakie Boogie--Jack Guthrie & His Oklahomans (1947)

[Mrs. Don-o]

He wasn't much of an ideologue. Never joined a party, let alone "The" Party, he wrote for a Communist paper but didn't write politics, played in Left-wing venues because they'd have him.

He was sharp enough to see that the Left opposed the Klan, and that appealed to him because his father had been a Klansman, and had participated in the lynching of a couple of people in Oklahoma: Woodie detested that.

He saw that the Left opposed Hitler, and that appealed to him because he despised Hitler. He didn't analyze the convoluted propaganda, let alone produce it. If he sang anti-Fascist, the Communists hired him. That gave a genuine redneck guitar-picker a certain elan in 1940.

His subtitle for "This Land Is Your Land" was "God Blessed This Land for Me."

This isn't Stalinism: it 's pure Woody.

[laplata]

I read the lyrics and don’t find reference to communist ideology written therein.

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Stalin and other Commies never mentioned “defending Communism” during World War II. It was always “defending the Motherland”.

[Fiji Hill]

Woodie was a Communist. “This Land is Your Land” was a response to Kate Smith's “God Bless America”

First performed in 1938, Kate Smith's "God Bless America" was a hit in 1939 and again in 1940, and sold well for years afterwards. As the story goes, Guthrie didn't like the reference to God.

"This Land is Your Land"--Woody Guthrie (1951--this includes the "red" verse)

[Fiji Hill]

The song became the hymn of the New Left in the Sixties, as performed by those well-known "Republicans," Peter, Paul and Mary.

Good old Peter, Paul and Mary! They also scored with this Communist protest song, popularized by a tub-thumpin' Red quartet.

The Hammer Song--The Weavers (1949)

[wideawake]

Guthrie abandoned his wife and family in CA and shacked up with his mistress in NYC. He had a drinking problem and was often unemployed. He boasted of his Communist sympathies and he was an anti-war pacifist until Hitler crossed Stalin, then all of a sudden he was "anti-fascist."

The Woody Guthrie you describe bears no resemblance to the actual article.