Posted on 07/14/2012 7:09:13 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Woody Guthrie will always be remembered as the guy who wrote "This Land is Your Land."
But he was so much more. If you're not sure why his 100th birthday, which would have been Saturday, is being celebrated far and wide this summer, here's a clue from Country Joe McDonald, the famed Woodstock festival veteran who knows a thing or two about penning catchy protest songs.
"I think he's become the embodiment of the American dream," says the Berkeley musician, "at a time when the American dream is kind of dying." To be sure, those familiar with Guthrie's work know that the protest songs he wrote decades ago about workers' rights, immigrants, income disparity and the environment seem more relevant than ever.
"Woody was writing about the '1 percent' long before it had a name," says UC Berkeley professor Peter Glazer, who has written a stage musical about Guthrie.
Guthrie, who died at age 55 of Huntington's disease in 1967, captured an era in American history like no other songwriter. His humbly poetic lyrics, which portrayed the Everyman perspective of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, profoundly influenced generations of protest songwriters, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to the Bay Area's own Joan Baez and Michael Franti.
That influence extends beyond American shores, McDonald points out: "People all over the world love Woody Guthrie."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
My Father’s outfit was one of the early ones to enter Berlin after the Russians captured it.
Daddy said every time they would meet with a Russian soldier, they would say in English, “Death to Fascists”.
The American soldiers were for the most part not all that knowledgeable about those political issues. The Americans would sort of stare at them, like what are you saying?
He said after a couple of weeks they quit saying it.
I think the word “Fascist” has become a particular code word to the hard left.
Yup but you can bet your bottom dollar that “che” shirts will be on display aplenty at the “celebrations” of this piece of garbage to be held in.............where else? The bay area. Probably see an upsurge of sales for them at the tables outside displaying all sorts of commie crap.
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.
You could be right but I don't think that anyone can be certain at this point.However,the statement that "driftless" made,the one to which I responded in post #12,is either correct or it's incorrect.If,by chance,it's correct than I'll give Guthrie credit for that.Hell,I'll even give Osama Obama credit for not having been involved in JFK's assassination.Of course that's about all I'll give him credit for.
That's very true. The Nazi party was officially the National Socialist German Workers Party. The reds would never say "nazi" because "nazi" would remind everyone how close the nazi ideology really was to the communist ideology.
Help Celebrate "Know Your Commies Day"
Which is why I like Wagner's music despite the fact that he was an anti-Semitic creep. I like a lot of Guthrie's songs as well. For that matter, George Orwell never gave up his belief that some form of socialism was the way of the future. He just disliked communism.
See my post #21. The Soviet army was actually under orders to say "fascist", and not "nazi".
The Nazi party was officially the National Socialist German Workers Party. The reds would never say "nazi" because "nazi" would remind everyone how close the nazi ideology really was to the communist ideology.
The first such “celebration” may be in Berkeley, but the article points out they are being held all over the country this summer. Probably in conjunction with the OWSers in the same camps.
“Guthrie was an out-and-out communist, that’s why. Probably more so than his contemporary, Pete Seeger...”
The main difference between Guthrie & Seeger is that the latter is alive, well into his nineties thanks to evil capitalist healthcare, and living large the bourgeois lifestyle made possible by the social & economic system he has so despised for so many decades.
Unregenerate Stalinists, both of them.
” Steve Earle said of Guthrie,”
Who cares! Steve Earle has admitted that he’s a communist in several articles.
Screw you Steve!
Re the photo in your post #16...Wikipedia (again) — “Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems at home was the best use of his talents; Guthrie lobbied the United States Army to accept him as a USO performer instead of conscripting him as a soldier in the draft. When Guthrie’s attempts failed, his friends Cisco Houston and Jim Longhi pressured Guthrie to join the U.S. Merchant Marine. Guthrie followed their advice: he served as a mess man and dishwasher and frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy their spirits on transatlantic voyages. ... In 1945, Guthrie’s association with communism made him ineligible for further service in the Merchant Marine, and he was drafted into the U.S. Army.”
As Maine Mariner says in #20, that’s his Merchant Marine garb, not an affectation.
Marine and longshoremen unions in that era were completely dominated by communists. I’m sure he fit right in. Of course, that’s true of unions to this day. After all, communism has its roots in the workers throwing off the shackles of the capitalist bourgeoise class.
So true. Take a look in Wikipedia at Burl Ives and Will Geer.
According to Wikipedia, his son Arlo (b. 1947), best known probably for his "Alice's Restaurant" song, is a registered Republican and supported Ron Paul in 2008. Arlo's mother is Jewish and he studied for his bar mitzvah with Rabbi Meir Kahane. Maybe not what you would expect of the son of a card-carrying Communist.
Country Joe McDonald was sued for copyright infringement for his song, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” by the estate of the composer of the song “Muskrat Ramble”. McDonald lost the suit and a lot of money. Just goes to show that the “noble” progressives and communists are not above stealing for their own gain.
Let’s not forget that the song “This Land is Your Land” was about the fact that ALL land should be ‘your’ land and that there shouldn’t be private land.
&&&
Thank you for that info. Sorry to say that I was among those fooled by this song.
I didn’t know that interesting tidbit about McDonald. Thanks for putting it up here.
“Appropriating” somebody else’s private property — how perfectly commie.
This was supposed to be The Summer of George!
No. A Communist never symbolizeed “American Dream.”
Stephen Foster will still be sung long after Guthrie is totally forgotten.
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