Thursday, May 02, 2019

The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- A Populist Folk Singer For The Ages- The Dust Bowl Refugee- Woody Guthrie

Click On The Title To Link To A YouTube Film Clip Of Woody Guthrie Performing This Land Is Your Land.


CD REVIEW

This Land Is Your Land-Woody Guthrie, Smithsonian Folkways, Washington, D.C., 1997

Although this space is mainly dedicated to reviewing political books and commenting on past and current political issues literary output is hardly the only form of political creation. Occasionally in the history of the American and international left musicians, artists and playwrights have given voice or provided visual reminders to the face of political struggle. With that thought in mind, every once in a while I will use this space to review those kinds of political expression.

This review is being used to describe several of Woody Guthrie’s recordings. Although I have listened to most of his songs and recordings these represent those songs that best represent his life’s work.

My musical tastes were formed, as were many of those of the generation of 1968, by Rock & Roll music exemplified by The Rolling Stones and Beatles and by the blues revival, both Delta and Chicago style. However, those forms as much as they gave pleasure were only marginally political at best. In short, these were entertainers performing material that spoke to us. In the most general sense that is all one should expect of a performer. Thus, for the most part that music need not be reviewed here. Those who thought that a new musical sensibility laid the foundations for a cultural or political revolution have long ago been proven wrong.

That said, in the early 1960’s there nevertheless was another form of musical sensibility that was directly tied to radical political expression- the folk revival. This entailed a search for roots and relevancy in musical expression. While not all forms of folk music lent themselves to radical politics it is hard to see the 1960’s cultural rebellion without giving a nod to such figures as Dave Van Ronk, the early Bob Dylan, Utah Phillips, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Whatever entertainment value these performers provided they also spoke to and prodded our political development. They did have a message and an agenda and we responded as such. That these musicians’ respective agendas proved inadequate and/or short-lived does not negate their affect on the times.

As I have noted in my review of Dave Van Ronk’s work when I first heard folk music in my youth I felt unsure about whether I liked it or not. As least against my strong feelings about The Rolling Stones and my favorite blues artist such as Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James. Then on some late night radio folk show here in Boston I heard Dave Van Ronk singing "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" and that was it. From that time to the present folk music has been a staple of my musical tastes. From there I expanded my play list of folk artists with a political message.

Although I had probably heard Woody’s "This Land is Your Land" at some earlier point I actually learned about his music second hand from early Bob Dylan covers of his work. While his influence has had its ebbs and flows since that time each succeeding generation of folk singers still seems to be drawn to his simple, honest tunes about the outlaws, outcasts and the forgotten people that made this country, for good or evil, what it is today. Since Woody did not have a particularly good voice nor was he an exceptional guitar player the message delivered by his songs is his real legacy.

Woody’s relationship with the American Communist Party while no secret is not widely known. Even Bob Dylan, a worshipper of Woody’s in his youth, was not aware of it. What is interesting is that the subjects of his songs fairly closely reflect the party line as it changed to reflect the winds blowing from Moscow. Woody’s best work is reflected in the Popular Front-style lyrics of, for example, " This Land is Your Land" when the party developed its class-collaborationist policy with the Rooseveltian Democratic Party and accordingly all liberals were good fellows and true. The Hitler-Stalin Pact was obviously not good news for his lyrical style. Still, listen to his recordings and learn about hard times and struggle.

This Land Is Your Land

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

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.

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?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

1 comment:

  1. "This Land Is Your Land"-Woody Guthrie

    This land is your land This land is my land
    From California to the New York island;
    From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
    This land was made for you and Me.

    As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
    I saw above me that endless skyway:
    I saw below me that golden valley:
    This land was made for you and me.

    I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
    To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
    And all around me a voice was sounding:
    This land was made for you and me.

    When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
    And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
    As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
    This land was made for you and me.

    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.

    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?

    Nobody living can ever stop me,
    As I go walking that freedom highway;
    Nobody living can ever make me turn back
    This land was made for you and me.

    Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)

    The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
    The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
    They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
    To pay all their money to wade back again

    Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
    Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
    You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
    All they will call you will be "deportees"

    My father's own father, he waded that river,
    They took all the money he made in his life;
    My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
    And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

    Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
    Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
    Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
    They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

    We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
    We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
    We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
    Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

    The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
    A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
    Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
    The radio says, "They are just deportees"

    Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
    Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
    To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
    And be called by no name except "deportees"?

    Words by Woody Guthrie and Music by Martin Hoffman
    © 1961 (renewed) by TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.

    Hard Travelin'

    I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', way down the road
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', hard ramblin', hard gamblin'
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been ridin' them fast rattlers, I thought you knowed
    I've been ridin' them flat wheelers, way down the road
    I've been ridin' them blind passengers, dead-enders, kickin' up cinders
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been hittin' some hard-rock minin', I thought you knowed
    I've been leanin' on a pressure drill, way down the road
    Hammer flyin', air-hose suckin', six foot of mud and I shore been a muckin'
    And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been hittin' some hard harvestin', I thought you knowed
    North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road
    Cuttin' that wheat, stackin' that hay, and I'm tryin' make about a dollar a day
    And I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been working that Pittsburgh steel, I thought you knowed
    I've been a dumpin' that red-hot slag, way down the road
    I've been a blasting, I've been a firin', I've been a pourin' red-hot iron
    I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been layin' in a hard-rock jail, I thought you knowed
    I've been a laying out 90 days, way down the road
    Damned old judge, he said to me, "It's 90 days for vagrancy."
    And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been walking that Lincoln highway, I thought you knowed,
    I've been hittin' that 66, way down the road
    Heavy load and a worried mind, lookin' for a woman that's hard to find,
    I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord



    Ludlow Massacre

    It was early springtime when the strike was on,
    They drove us miners out of doors,
    Out from the houses that the Company owned,
    We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.

    I was worried bad about my children,
    Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge,
    Every once in a while a bullet would fly,
    Kick up gravel under my feet.

    We were so afraid you would kill our children,
    We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep,
    Carried our young ones and pregnant women
    Down inside the cave to sleep.

    That very night your soldiers waited,
    Until all us miners were asleep,
    You snuck around our little tent town,
    Soaked our tents with your kerosene.

    You struck a match and in the blaze that started,
    You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns,
    I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me.
    Thirteen children died from your guns.

    I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner,
    Watched the fire till the blaze died down,
    I helped some people drag their belongings,
    While your bullets killed us all around.

    I never will forget the look on the faces
    Of the men and women that awful day,
    When we stood around to preach their funerals,
    And lay the corpses of the dead away.

    We told the Colorado Governor to call the President,
    Tell him to call off his National Guard,
    But the National Guard belonged to the Governor,
    So he didn't try so very hard.

    Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes,
    Up to Walsenburg in a little cart,
    They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back,
    And they put a gun in every hand.

    The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners,
    They did not know we had these guns,
    And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers,
    You should have seen those poor boys run.

    We took some cement and walled that cave up,
    Where you killed these thirteen children inside,
    I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union,"
    And then I hung my head and cried.

    1913 Massacre

    Take a trip with me in 1913,
    To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
    I will take you to a place called Italian Hall,
    Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball.

    I will take you in a door and up a high stairs,
    Singing and dancing is heard everywhere,
    I will let you shake hands with the people you see,
    And watch the kids dance around the big Christmas tree.

    You ask about work and you ask about pay,
    They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day,
    Working the copper claims, risking their lives,
    So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.

    There's talking and laughing and songs in the air,
    And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere,
    Before you know it you're friends with us all,
    And you're dancing around and around in the hall.

    Well a little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights,
    To play the piano so you gotta keep quiet,
    To hear all this fun you would not realize,
    That the copper boss' thug men are milling outside.

    The copper boss' thugs stuck their heads in the door,
    One of them yelled and he screamed, "there's a fire,"
    A lady she hollered, "there's no such a thing.
    Keep on with your party, there's no such thing."

    A few people rushed and it was only a few,
    "It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you,"
    A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down,
    But the thugs held the door and he could not get out.

    And then others followed, a hundred or more,
    But most everybody remained on the floor,
    The gun thugs they laughed at their murderous joke,
    While the children were smothered on the stairs by the door.

    Such a terrible sight I never did see,
    We carried our children back up to their tree,
    The scabs outside still laughed at their spree,
    And the children that died there were seventy-three.

    The piano played a slow funeral tune,
    And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon,
    The parents they cried and the miners they moaned,
    "See what your greed for money has done."

    Oklahoma Hills

    Many a month has come and gone
    Since I wandered from my home
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.
    Many a page of life has turned,
    Many a lesson I have learned;
    Well, I feel like in those hills I still belong.

    'Way down yonder in the Indian Nation
    Ridin' my pony on the reservation,
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.
    Now, 'way down yonder in the Indian Nation,
    A cowboy's life is my occupation,
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.

    But as I sit here today,
    Many miles I am away
    From a place I rode my pony through the draw,
    While the oak and blackjack trees
    Kiss the playful prairie breeze,
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.

    Now as I turn life a page
    To the land of the great Osage
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born,
    While the black oil it rolls and flows
    And the snow-white cotton grows
    In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.



    Words and Music by Woody Guthrie and Jack Guthrie
    © Copyright 1945 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications , Inc.
    and Michael Goldsen Music Inc / Warner-Chappell Music


    Pastures Of Plenty

    It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
    My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
    Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
    And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

    I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
    I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
    On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
    We come with the dust and we go with the wind

    California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
    Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
    Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
    To set on your table your light sparkling wine

    Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
    From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
    Every state in the Union us migrants have been
    We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win

    It's always we rambled, that river and I
    All along your green valley, I will work till I die
    My land I'll defend with my life if it be
    Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

    Pretty Boy Floyd

    If you'll gather 'round me, children,
    A story I will tell
    'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
    Oklahoma knew him well.

    It was in the town of Shawnee,
    A Saturday afternoon,
    His wife beside him in his wagon
    As into town they rode.

    There a deputy sheriff approached him
    In a manner rather rude,
    Vulgar words of anger,
    An' his wife she overheard.

    Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
    And the deputy grabbed his gun;
    In the fight that followed
    He laid that deputy down.

    Then he took to the trees and timber
    To live a life of shame;
    Every crime in Oklahoma
    Was added to his name.

    But a many a starving farmer
    The same old story told
    How the outlaw paid their mortgage
    And saved their little homes.

    Others tell you 'bout a stranger
    That come to beg a meal,
    Underneath his napkin
    Left a thousand dollar bill.

    It was in Oklahoma City,
    It was on a Christmas Day,
    There was a whole car load of groceries
    Come with a note to say:

    Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
    You say that I'm a thief.
    Here's a Christmas dinner
    For the families on relief.

    Yes, as through this world I've wandered
    I've seen lots of funny men;
    Some will rob you with a six-gun,
    And some with a fountain pen.

    And as through your life you travel,
    Yes, as through your life you roam,
    You won't never see an outlaw
    Drive a family from their home.

    Union Maid

    There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
    Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
    She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
    And when the Legion boys come 'round
    She always stood her ground.

    Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
    I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
    Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
    I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

    This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
    She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
    She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
    She'd show her card to the National Guard
    And this is what she'd say

    You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
    Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
    Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
    A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.

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