15-01-2016
Een drietal nummers door en voor deze legendarische folkzanger en een artikel over zijn betekenis: 'Do Re Mi', 'This Land Is Your Land' en 'Song To Woody' (Bob Dylan).
'Can Woody Guthrie's Machine Still Kill Fascists?'
Written by
Brian Merchant
Senior Editor
July 19, 2012 // 09:00 AM EST
Woody Guthrie would have been 100 about now; instead, our most influential and most populist folk singer died in his fifties while a wide-eyed teenager named Robert Zimmerman looked on. Thanks to the centennial, much is being made of Guthrie’s fine tunes and massive impact on folk, rock, Americana, and country music—the glowing Pitchfork review alone should get a few thousand more kids to drop Guthrie’s name at basement shows across the country.
But less is being made of Guthrie’s other all-important cultural contribution: his fascist-killing machine. His songs, delivered from that infamous slogan-bearing guitar, tackled the plight of the downtrodden at the hands of the wealthy and powerful. Songs about the Depression, about immigrants suffering, about bankers being dicks. His best known tune, after all, is a polemic against private land ownership—the original version of “This Land is Your Land” actually includes these verses:
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,
This land 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?
Now, that message is actually pretty anti-American; at least, it rails against the chest-thumping, stay-off-my-lawn, land-lording America as it’s currently conceived—it’s all about how private property sucks, and how everyone has an equal right to the land. So yeah, it’s not surprising that the song has been neutered and de-radicalized so school choirs can sing it alongside pap like “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.”
Guthrie’s grit still manages to cut through, but only for those willing to seek it out, to give the song a good long listen. It’s still pretty commonly sung at protests (though only like .002% of America actually protests) and was adopted most recently by Tom Morello and #Occupy’s Guitarmy.
And Guthrie’s famous slogan—’This Machine Kills Fascists,’ as seen on the stickers and scrawling he slapped on his guitar—still gets embraced, hacked, and emulated all over the place.
'Can Woody Guthrie's Machine Still Kill Fascists?'
Written by
Brian Merchant
Senior Editor
July 19, 2012 // 09:00 AM EST
Woody Guthrie would have been 100 about now; instead, our most influential and most populist folk singer died in his fifties while a wide-eyed teenager named Robert Zimmerman looked on. Thanks to the centennial, much is being made of Guthrie’s fine tunes and massive impact on folk, rock, Americana, and country music—the glowing Pitchfork review alone should get a few thousand more kids to drop Guthrie’s name at basement shows across the country.
But less is being made of Guthrie’s other all-important cultural contribution: his fascist-killing machine. His songs, delivered from that infamous slogan-bearing guitar, tackled the plight of the downtrodden at the hands of the wealthy and powerful. Songs about the Depression, about immigrants suffering, about bankers being dicks. His best known tune, after all, is a polemic against private land ownership—the original version of “This Land is Your Land” actually includes these verses:
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,
This land 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?
Now, that message is actually pretty anti-American; at least, it rails against the chest-thumping, stay-off-my-lawn, land-lording America as it’s currently conceived—it’s all about how private property sucks, and how everyone has an equal right to the land. So yeah, it’s not surprising that the song has been neutered and de-radicalized so school choirs can sing it alongside pap like “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.”
Guthrie’s grit still manages to cut through, but only for those willing to seek it out, to give the song a good long listen. It’s still pretty commonly sung at protests (though only like .002% of America actually protests) and was adopted most recently by Tom Morello and #Occupy’s Guitarmy.
And Guthrie’s famous slogan—’This Machine Kills Fascists,’ as seen on the stickers and scrawling he slapped on his guitar—still gets embraced, hacked, and emulated all over the place.