Guthrie, Woody

3d ·

“Everybody hits a little hard luck sometimes. Boy, when I just sit here and imagine how much money they got in the world I wonder how anybody’s got to be broke.”

GUTHRIE, WOODY (1912-1967). Woodrow ‘son Guthrie, known as Woody, was the best known ‘of the folk singers associated with the American Left during the 1940s, He subsequently emerged as a pop‘ular-culture hero whose reputation spread far beyond left-wing circles, serving as a model for politically on: ented “singer-songwriters” such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs,

Born into an Oklahoma family rich in musical talent but dogged by tragedy (his father squandered all his money in losing political campaigns, while his ‘mother’ illness put her in an asylum), Woody spent his youth on the fringes of society, consorting with, hhoboes and itinerant laborers who added to his already growing repertoire of songs and stories. He began playing “hillbilly” music in local bands as a teenager, then drifted to California with other “dust bowl refugees,” where he became a popular country performer ata progressive radio station (KFVD) in the late 1930s.

His sympathy for the displaced farmer led him to ‘write protest songs such as “Talking Dust Bowl” and.

“Do Re Mi” (which were apparently very well received by his Okie audience), and he soon became involved ‘with union functions, strikes, and Communist Party rallies. Woody's charm and “authenticity” endeared ‘him to left.wing intellectuals; he began waiting a tegular column, “Woody Sez," for the newspaper People's ‘World, and entertaining at Hollywood political fundraisers, After a while, political performances were his primary source of income.

In 1940 Guthrie went to New York City, where he became a dominant member of the developing folk ‘movement; he recorded hs Dust Row! Ballads for RCA ‘Victor, performed at union functions with Pete Seeger and the nevly formed Almanac Singers, wrote for the Daily Worker, and at times even appeated on network radio, something that filled him with apprehension and conflict. As the war effort grew, Woody (who was.

never quite a pacifist) ave himself wholeheartedly to At, Inserbing “This Machine kills Fascists” on his gutar; he eventually entered the merchant marine, and finally, the army (this last with great reluctance though, and only when he was drafted and had no ‘hoice). He also authored a popular autobiography, ‘Bound for Glory, during the war years, but the postwar witch-hunts, combined with chronic, degenerative ill ness, made his later career progressively more difficult.

Although Guthrie periodically flied with con‘ventional succes, it seemed to make him sufficiently ‘uncomfortable that he preferred to avoid it. He was handicapped throughout his career by an unwilling‘ness to compromise, a singlemindedness that also (ortunately) helped preserve the purity of his music.

He alienated socialists by refusing to denounce the Hitler-talin Pact, radio sponsors by refusing to soften his protest Iyrcs, and his wives and friends by refus{ng to stay put (although many of his later personal difficulties can be attributed to the onset of Huntington’s chorea, a condition that finally caused his death). Generally weak on strategy, Guthrie had a credo that simply said, “Let's give up our selfishness and differences, and work together"—he left the details to others. Ideologically, he was as much a poplist as a communist; in fact, he perceived the com ‘munis ideal to be identical with the Christian, often referring to Jesus as a “socialist outlaw.”

Like the hoboes he traveled with, Guthrie was ‘quite willing to blend fact with fancy, and he willfully encouraged sycophants who portrayed him as the archetypal American workerhero; it was good ‘business to doso, Yet within such hyperbole lay more than a kernel of truth: both his art and hhis polities ‘were deeply rooted in American tradition.

Woody's songs were generally based either on standard Anglo-American ballads or blues structures; he often parodied the popular hillbilly song hits of the time, yet he managed inadvertently to write a couple of those himself: “Philadelphia Lawyer” and "Oklahoma Hills" Although he produced his share ‘of transitory agitprop material, his best lyrics captured the spirit of America in a style so highly poetic and yet so extremely direct that one of them, “This Land Is Your Land,” has often been proposed as a replacement for "The Star-Spangled Banner." He had that talent (possessed by great revolutionary poets) for fusing abstract political concerns with the minutiae of daily experience, plus a particularly marvelous sense of humor: Yet even when most of his songs are forgotten, he will be remembered for having created an activist role for folk singers in USS. politics.

[see also Folk Music, 19305-19605.)