Woody Guthrie was the first singer/songwriter to use music as a vehicle for his social and political stances. He set out to use his music to bring about progressive change and in so doing inspired generations of other singers.
Woody opened up a world of possibility, a lodestone of gems to be mined by all who came after.
Whenever there were singers harnessing poetic honesty with heartfelt convictions one could follow a line that harked back to Woody.
Woody stood for equality and justice and put his body where his mouth was. He lived the life, made the friends, stood on the picket lines and fought for what he believed. He put his heart and soul into supporting the unions, racial harmony and social justice. In so doing he set himself against the capitalist system that produce the small number of winners and large bulk of losers. He was for the oppressed, downtrodden, destitute and disenfranchised.
The hundreds of songs that Woody wrote in the 1940s and 1950s still echo down the decades with undiminished power to inspire.
Without Woody there would have been no Dylan and my mind would have been all the poorer.
Where are the people of Woody’s stature, passion and talent to stand up against the monolithic establishment that is presently destroying the planet?
It is not beyond the wit of man to create a fair system whereby we do not have the terrible deprivation in the third world, the poverty, disease and pollution. We have the Technology, Science and Economic power to create a world of greater equality without such overpopulation, environmental destruction and ravaging of wild-life.
If Woody was alive today his songs would be full of the greed and selfishness that is leading to our demise. He would not have sat quietly by while the bankers, businessmen and politicians sell our future for a quick buck. He would have been singing it from the rooftops!
Help produce a positive zeitgeist! Build on Woody’s legacy and let’s start putting it right!