The Woody Guthrie Story

 

Woody Guthrie -"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."

 

 

The chapter from Woody's autobiography I read was the first. It was set on a dusty train that was transporting cement. The heat is sweltering, the dust is in everyone's lungs, and the train is packed with drunk, angry people. Fights are breaking out over tiny things or, more often for no reason. Woody Guthrie watches people getting killed by the dust and the drunks. Woody Guthrie portrays himself as impartial for the most part, but fighting back when an old man is being hurt by the dust and is being denied access to the fresh air out near the door.

 

 

Bob Dylan was affected by Woody Guthrie in terms of music primarily (Bob Dylan started out by singing woody Guthrie songs) but also lifestyle and beliefs. He is also pro-worker and slightly communist, and both are folk heroes. He is not the only one. Many others including Joe Strummer and Bruce Springsteen have started to emulate him to the point of changing their names. Many more have enjoyed Woody Guthrie's music. Still others follow his political beliefs and used his songs as protest songs.

 

Bob Dylan said, "I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this guy.  You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live."

Woody Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. His father was a real estate owner who owned quite a lot of land and was comparatively rich. His mother was a peaceful person who taught the children to be ethical and kind.  Early in his life the family house burnt down. This was the beginning of Woody's plague by fire. They moved to a new house, an old dusty building they all disliked but for the fact it had a place to play out the back. Woody would invite friends over. One day he got into an argument about whether it was his mother who started the fire. Woody claimed that it wasn't true but when he asked his mother later she went very quiet and said nothing.

Woody Guthrie sang many different kinds of songs that could be called folk, including

Blues (songs about how bad you feel and why), ballads (stories in music form), talking blues (same as blues but more emphasis on the story), and hillbilly (old-timey). He influenced many of the next generation singers, in particular Bob Dylan, who said, " His songs had a particular sound and said something with it.  I wanted to sing like that."

 

 

 

When Woody was seven the second incident to do with fire occurred. His sister burned to death when the dress she was wearing caught aflame as she lit the oven. Not too long after his father burned himself severely with a torch, and was sent to Pampa, Texas to live with relatives. In the meanwhile his mother had shown progressively worse signs of Huntington's Disease, and was eventually sent to a hospital. Woody and his brothers and sisters were left to fend for themselves. After that Woody never went to school, instead doing odd jobs to buy food.

Woody Guthrie eventually followed his father to Pampa, where he took up busking and played backup at concerts. When he was 19 he met first wife Mary Jennings and had three kids. From then on he constantly moved his family around. Guthrie became very interested in the okies fleeing the dust bowl. He went to California, seeing a lot of poverty on the way. Woody became very affected by the sights he saw. And became sympathetic towards the working classes, eventually becoming a communist. He started work singing and writing protest songs, on a radio channel for folk music called KFVD.  He was introduced to many communists by the newscaster Ed Robbins, and started writing a column called Woody Sez for The Daily Worker, the communist newspaper. However, when the war broke out Woody was kicked out of the radio station because didn't want communist sympathizers amongst them.

Soon after this, Woody would leave for Texas, staying there for a while before heading for New York. There he lived in Will Geer's apartment and joined the folksinger community of Greenwich Village. Here he met many friends, such as Pete Seeger  Huddie "Leadbelly" Leadbetter and Cisco Houston. This artistic environment inspired him and he wrote many new songs and continued writing his book, 'Bound for Glory'. He decided to settle down and found a job with a steady income, singing songs for the tobacco sponsored channel, "pipe smoking time". Woody soon quit the job, finding it too restricting. At this time the government offered him a job - singing songs as part of an advertising campaign to raise interest in the Coulee Dam project. Woody enjoyed this very much, writing what are considered some of his greatest songs. However, by this time his wife grew tired of the constant uprooting and divorced him.

Woody Guthrie used his music to campaign for his political beliefs, telling the story of the migrant workers. He was very left wing and as is mentioned before, a communist. At some points in his life he was blacklisted by the government for being too leftist. In particular he was very much in favor of unions, writing many songs supporting them.

Bob Dylan said, "People take old songs, add to them, change them and make them fit the current worldÉ..that's what Woody did".  Woody's songs such as those about the dust bowl and 'Union Maid' did that.

 

As the dam project came to a close, he talked with Pete Seeger, who invited him to join his new band, the Almanac Singers. Woody decided to join. At first their main theme was peace songs, but after America entered World War II they started singing songs that were definitely anti-fascist. To avoid being drafted into the army he joined the merchant marines. However, his association with communists made him ineligible for the marines so he was forced into the army. When he was discharged he married his second wife Marjorie and had several children. However, Woody's child Cathy-Anne  died at the age of four in an eerily similar fashion to Woody's sister. This sent Woody into a depression for a long time. When he emerged, he started looking after the family, seemingly about to settle down.

 

    

However, soon after, he started to show signs of the Huntington's Disease that had killed his mother. Now the condition escalated, and his behavior grew odd. He spent much of the time between hospitals. After a while his wife refused to let him back to his home saying he was dangerous to the children. He lived with Will Geer for a while, before running off with his third wife, Anneke Van Kirk.  She however soon divorced him, saying he was hard to look after. He spent the last few years of life in Brooklyn state hospital and died on October 3 1967 at the age of 55.

 

 

  Arlo Guthrie-Woody's son

 

 

 

Joel 8T

 

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