Woody Guthrie - Tumblr Posts
Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest, ep. 5, 1965 "O' Mary Don't You Weep" Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Bernice Reagon
pete seeger is so misunderstood that it makes me go feral and run around my room like a wild badger, clawing at my curtains and all that.
People think he wasn't as radical as woody guthrie because he sang children's songs and spoke of love. wrong! He was blacklisted! he was called an enemy of America! he dedicated his whole life to helping make better the country that abused him, who abused him and his friends and comrades. he worked tirelessly for decades to preserve the legacy of people like woody guthrie and lead belly and all the other folks. Do you even have the slightest idea of the black hole of information that would have happened without Pete Seeger? Can you comprehend what a world without Woody's music would feel like to live in? God bless Pete Seeger.
if i have to tag my posts #cottagecore to get people to care about folk music and its history, then so be it. yes yes woody guthrie was so cottagecore and fairycore. Please listen to folk music
New York City, 1943
" I could talk to you about fascism. It is a big word and it hides in some pretty little places.
It is nothing in the world but greed for profit and greed for the power to hurt and make slaves out of the people."
Woody Guthrie, from his diary to his daughter c. 1940s
Song of the day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"This Land Is Your Land" Woody Guthrie, 1940
the melody is originally based on "When the World's on Fire" by the Carter family, 1933, which was based on the older song and melody "What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire" by the Birmingham Jubilee Singers, 1928
woody Guthrie's song was written in response to the song "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin in 1938 (the original version was written in 1918) and performed by Kate Smith. He was tired of hearing it on the radio.
Like many of Woody's songs, "This Land is Your Land" is explicitly pro-worker and anti-exploitation. You could even argue that it's explicitly anti-private property. As this song got sanded down for the mainstream, its more radical themes and messages were somewhat forgotten, and it became a general patriotic song for children and adults to enjoy, the very thing that Guthrie sought to criticize in the first place.
there are many covers of this song for many different countries, but my favorite version is the live one by Pete Seeger performed in 1976, where he talks about its history as a socialist song and invites the audience to sing along with him.
Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art • Words and Wisdom by Nora Guthrie and Robert Santelli
an assortment of Woody Guthrie quotes, signatures, and poetry
i am Obsessed with "The Union Boys" band, formed on March 11, 1944, that literally only existed for one day.
they released one album consisting of entirely anti-fascist, anti-racist, and pro union songs. And it was given its name by Moses Asch, very descriptive name.
consisting of Josh White (underrated ! listen to his music), Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Tom Glazer, and technically woody guthrie. this album is the reason i always have "UAW-CIO" stuck in my head lol.
To hear your banjo play, 1947
one of the only films to feature Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie performing in 1943
the various notebooks of Woody Guthrie
"Cathy says" is referring to his daughter, where he'd document many of her earliest words
portraits from People's Songs Magazine 1946-48
Woody Guthrie tribute concert flier, 1983
Song of the Day
do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it
"Great Historical Bum" Odetta, 1960
Originally written in 1941 by Woody Guthrie for his Columbia River Song collection. That time when Woody Guthrie (a socialist) was commissioned by the US federal government (at the recommendation of Alan Lomax. to write folk songs in support of the Coulee Dam in 1941. Woody Guthrie was in poverty at the time and was happy to finally have a job. During the month he traveled through Oregon and wrote a song every day, including "Pastures of Plenty" and "Roll on Columbia".
the lyrics in these songs, including this one, include radical themes like working-class rights, unions, anti-fascism, and anti-capitalism. because of this and because Woody Guthrie was an anti-capitalist, the songs and the documentary they were made for were ordered destroyed by the Eisenhower administration. luckily the recordings were saved by a proletarian comrade: a former employee of the Bonneville Power Administration, who decided to keep a copy of the film and recordings.
this song may also be inspired by another traditional song recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock , but I'm not sure.
I like this cover by Odetta quite a bit. I think she does the original one justice.
