Deportee
Today would be Woody Guthrie's 97th birthday.
Woody was already too sick to perform when I started getting into folk music but his influence was everywhere. The simple, direct lyrics of his songs had a huge impact on the way people wrote and his tendency to put new words to old tunes liberated many gifted lyricists who couldn't quite come up with tunes yet. Both of these had a huge effect on the young Bob Dylan. He later took these traits and blended them with explorations into Surrealism to write some of the signature songs of our times.
There were some who disliked the "unpolished" nature of Woody's performance style, I especially think of The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, but even "prettied up" the lyrics of Deportee, Dusty Old Dust, Do-Re-Me and, of course, This Land is Your Land carried powerful messages and helped shape a generation's early commitment to justice and equality.
I wish I could meet Woody and thank him. Not so much for all the things I mentioned above but for all the fun I've had over the years singing his songs.
Woody was already too sick to perform when I started getting into folk music but his influence was everywhere. The simple, direct lyrics of his songs had a huge impact on the way people wrote and his tendency to put new words to old tunes liberated many gifted lyricists who couldn't quite come up with tunes yet. Both of these had a huge effect on the young Bob Dylan. He later took these traits and blended them with explorations into Surrealism to write some of the signature songs of our times.
There were some who disliked the "unpolished" nature of Woody's performance style, I especially think of The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, but even "prettied up" the lyrics of Deportee, Dusty Old Dust, Do-Re-Me and, of course, This Land is Your Land carried powerful messages and helped shape a generation's early commitment to justice and equality.
I wish I could meet Woody and thank him. Not so much for all the things I mentioned above but for all the fun I've had over the years singing his songs.