Woody and Sid
by Bob on August 4, 2007
Woody Guthrie, the great folk singer, and Sid Vicious of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Who would have ever thought to conjoin their names? Well I think there is a relevant thread linking them, despite the fact that they come from different eras: Woody from the 1930s and 1940s, and Sid from the 1970s.
Woody sang from all over the USA, about people and situations and politics. He travelled everywhere. He took in what the people were feeling. He understood people. He sang songs of relevance and protest, in the great tradition of folk singers. Through his music and lyrics he woke people up out of their sleep and made them implicitly pay attention to what he was saying and see what was really happening. Put simply, Woody Guthrie was a truely amazing person who got a message out to the people. Not everyone might agree with what he was saying, but the message got out through his music.
When I was living in New York City in the early days of the Punk Rock music scene, especially at CBGB's, as a more traditional rock musician I frequently wondered what the allure was of the Punk scene besides the seeming avant-garde nature of it all.
So backstage one night I asked a musician friend from a punk band just what it was all about since all I saw and heard was loud music, spitting on the audience, pins stuck in ears and noses, and the like. I just wasn't sure what I was seeing and hearing. Of course, in a Dali-esque sense, one musn't insist on always being sure of what we call a sensible reality. Nevertheless, I asked.
He turned to me and said "C'mon, Bob!". And I waited for an answer. Still no answer. He again said "C'mon, Bob, surely you know ! You're a musician and also clever!". I wasn't sure what he meant that I knew. So, I thought. I said, "It is about protest simply?".
He turned to me and said "It's Woody Guthrie in leather, with pins, and piercings and spittle and loud music!". I was amazed. He was right in the simile. He then added "You're not going to wake anybody up by singing love ballads anymore!". So it was to wake people up out of their comfortable societal and social slumber and sloth, one inferred. An effective protest genre.
So it was. It woke a lot of people up. The melodies weren't perfect but the important message was there.
Just like Woody did.
So it all comes together, just like the Beatles sang.
We learn from all experiences. The confluence of Punk rock and traditional folk music that was a protest. Time to listen to Woody's "Hard Travelin'" and "This Land is Your Land" once again. Subtlety was his strong point in communicating protest. Just like with Marvin Gaye's seemingly very soft and subtle protest songs, "Inner City Blues" and "What's Going On" many years later.
One never stops learning. We are thankful for that.
Let's turn to Woody on that one. Here he speaks about songwriting:
* * *
"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing.
Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling."
"I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built."
"I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."
* * *
Woody and Sid definitely knew what it was all about to stir things up and have people pay attention to what they thought was important. We might be well-advised to take heed from this important lesson.