"Take it easy, but take it."
Woodie Guthrie
The original dirty hippie
I was just thinking of Woodie Guthrie today. The song I couldn’t remember was “This Land is Your Land.” It’s a convoluted story that wanders through “Doctor Who” and my childhood in California in the 70s.
It’s amazing that someone could have so many of the clues and still reach all the wrong conclusions.
Guthrie was a philosophical communist. While Guthrie claimed to have joined the American Communist Party, there is no conclusive evidence that he ever did. What he did do was write 174 columns under the title of Woody Sez for the Communist Party newspaper, The Daily Worker. Among these columns, he heaped praise upon Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, even defending Stalins unprovoked invasion of Poland in 1939!I have no respect for him.
It's a pretty safe bet that Comrade Woody's list of New Years resolutions for 1941 contained nothing whatsoever about beating fascism.
In other words he was not a good person.
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.
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”.
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’s One and Only New Year’s Resolution - 2014: Never, ever waste a drop of Scotch.
Good penmanship