An Instrument of Folk Music History

[skivee]

I like living in the DC area because of the big ol' chunks of history contained in the region

Comments

[museclio]

One of the worst things my (pink diaper baby) mother can say about someone from that era is that "he named names". It would be nice if HUAC were something in the past but these days evidentally it's un-American to not agree with war again.

"he named names"

[skivee]

We would all like to think that we would do the right thing, but who knows. Ives could clearly see the lives of lots of the suspect "artsey" crowd being destroyed.
There's a parallel discussion about this on the Mudcat cafe. In it, contributor Don Firth noted:
" well after the hearings, Woody Guthrie, who didn't seem to be into bearing grudges, dropped in on Burl Ives in California and they spent some time together, even swapping some songs. When Woody came back east, he was asked about Ives. Woody responded, "He's one angry man!" "What's he so angry about?" he was asked. Woody answered, "He's angry with himself!"

Re: "he named names"

[skivee]

a link to the mudcat thread:

here

Re: "he named names"

[museclio]

I see your comments on the thread - and yes, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie could forgive him, and that is their right, but a lot of people stood up and didn't name names. As folks in that thread pointed out Ives was able to be who he was and such a star in part because of the blacklist. That doens't take away from his talent, but it was still the wrong this to do. I think he both contributed to HUAC and was it's victim - but he had a choice, and he chose to throw other artists under the HUAC bus.

That said, I agree with you in the we all hope we'd do the right thing.

Oops

[skivee]

Please note my correction above of the mis-identified committee. Mea Culpa.