What's Woody Got to Do With You

Even if you aren't a folk music fan or a modern day folkster, but yer an American, Woody Guthrie matters to you. I think a lotta folks might not quite believe this, they might think "He's one of those people you're Supposed to know, he's just a scratchy old voice on some records, and yeah yeah he influenced a whole lot of mighty musicians--that's wonderful but he was for his day and he came along a long time before these new issues came to be."

Well here's what's funny. You go to the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York town and turn over page after page of what Woody wrote, typed, scribbled and scrawled all over all kindsa paper and you'll be shocked at just how much of what he wrote is gleamingly relevant to this very day.

Ol woodrow wilson Guthrie is just important to you, man alive it's true.

Here's some reasons why.

His songs are exemplary examples of what being an American is all about. His songs say among other things: trust yourself, don't let no one else tell you how it is, question everything, and glory in the mightyness of nature.

His recordings document a very great performer. One who delivers humor and stories and tragedies and majesty and the Joad family with clarity and spunk, with wise syllables and laughing wonder. I believe that so much attention gets paid to Woody the Icon or Woody the guy who wrote more that 1000 songs or Woody the guy who wrote "This Land is Your Land" or some other Woodys--and we never talk about how fine a performer he was. There's very few flubs and glitches on his many many recordings, and I doubt he had the patience to do multiple takes of many of his songs.

There's many more reasons, but the one I'm getting at is this: Woody Guthrie's relationship to the U.S. Government is fascinating, and particularly so today, because he was the beneficiary of Government money by way of FDR's New Deal. Woody wrote songs to warn folks about VD when he was in the Merchant Marine, and he wrote songs to promote the Bonneville Power Administration's dam-building projects as well.

In case you don't follow too much news, there's a whole mess o' government moo-lah just about to come down the pipe, and (who knows) perhaps trickle down to little old you and me. So examining how Woody fared back in his heyday when the last such glut of government funds came down is particularly relevant.

I'd love it if you told me what you dig about Woody, or how you're surprised by some way in which his body of work makes him relevant today.