Woodie Guthrie's New Years Resolution List, 1942

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

[yarddog]

I had a Great Uncle through marriage who grew up with Woody and was the same age.

I recall someone asking him about Woody and what kind of guy he was.

He thought for a few seconds and then said: “He was just plain sorry”.

[Sherman Logan]

Until Hitler broke his nonagression pact with Stalin & invaded the USSR in June 1941, Guthrie was a good little commie like all the others who chanted “The Yanks Are Not Coming!” & preached strict isolationism.

True, but incomplete. Up to August 1939 commies around the world preached anti-fascism.

Hitler and Stalin signed their pact and commies abruptly switched their POV, only to switch back less than two years later.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Yeah, and if I had a hammer, Peter, Paul, and Mary would have been in the morgue.

I’ll give Woody a bit of a pass, without him there would have been no “The Ballad of Ruben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A”.

[ifinnegan]

Amen, brother. When the World’s on Fire. A Pentecostal song arranged by AP Carter with Maybelle Carter on guitar.

Guthrie openly said he used Carter Family “chuch house licks” in his songs.

May belle Carter was the genius of guitar upon whose shouder’s Guthrie stood. AP Carter was a genius at arrangement and lyrics.

I like Guthrie’s music but after discovering the Carter Family came to a different understanding of it.

Guthrie was leftist and wrote worker’s polemic.

But interestingly, at that time American values were still so entrenched that any of hs songs were as much about Ameican individualism as the worker’s struggle.

He also sang songs about fighting for your land as long as there are bullets in your guns.

[omega4412]

Is there anyone here with the screen name “Counter-revolutionary cad”?

[TurboZamboni]

I'm trying # 26

[lwd]

19. Keep hoping machine running

Guthrie wrote a song called "hoping machine" bet never put it to music. Super group New Multitudes (Jim James, Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, and Anders Parker) do a good job of putting it to music along with other stuff Guthrie wrote. You can look them up on youtube. happy new year!

[Jack Hammer]

Jack Hammer’s One and Only New Year’s Resolution - 2014: Never, ever waste a drop of Scotch.

[minnesota_bound]

Good penmanship

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sorry. I even googled it. Did read far enough.

[left that other site]

No problem!

Both were Great! :-) Happy new Year!

[Tax-chick]

Not that I’ve noticed. When I was a little girl, I thought it was “counter-revolutionary cats.”

[AppyPappy]

The ONLY people who used the word “fascists” in the 50’s/60’s were Communists.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm astonished at the not-Godpleasing malice of this., We are not permitted to say anyone is definitively in hell --- not Judas Iscariot, not even Hitler or Stalin, and not Woody Guthrie.

There is a very good reason why the Church will canonize, but will not demonize.

Note well, I am not saying that one cannot judge ideologies as good or evil, words as true or false, actions as right or wrong. But the souls of men and the extent of the Divine Wisdom are beyond your purview, and mine.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I noticed that, too. It takes attention to detail.

Happy New Year to you, minnesota_bound!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Uh... just.... what... are they doing?

I've heard "the fur was flying." But the hair?

[elcid1970]

See post 20. She caught my Kingston Trio line.

True, no one on Earth can say who’s in Hell, although proofs can be gathered that someone’s in Heaven.

BTW, the last line of that K.T. ballad was, “If you want to be a Bolshevik, you’ll have to go to Hell.”

Any doubts as to where J.V. Stalin is, now?

[elcid1970]

“Counter-revolutionary cad”?

Sure wish I’d thought of it!

;^)

[Reeses]

Guthrie was leftist and wrote worker’s polemic.

Leftism now is about the un-employed and gov-employed no'bility taking wealth and power from the workers. Conservatism is about the worker's struggle. Arguably Guthrie was a conservative. Workers of the world unite!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hoping Machine
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Jay Farrar

Don’t let anything knock your props out from under you
Always keep your mind clear, let your plans come out of mistakes
These are the plans and nothing can tear down
Made out of things that have already been torn down

Whatever you do, wherever you go

Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity
knock your dreamer and your hoping machine

Music is the language of the mind that travels
Carries the key to the laws of time and space
Lonesome train whistling down the silent wail of wind
Life is the sound, creation has been a song

Whatever you do, wherever you go
Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity
knock your dreamer and your hoping machine
Out of order

Quick to manufacture their schemes and ideas
Faster than any turn a tide can wash you out
Word is the music and the people are the song
Tomorrows chances feel like a singing god

Whatever you do, wherever you go
Don’t lose your grip on life and that means
Don’t let any earthy calamity
knock your dreamer and your hoping machine
Out of order

---

Thanks for this, LWD

Happy New Year to you and yours!