Woody stood for equality and freedom, an end to racism and fairness for the working man. He would have been appalled by the rise of the greed and selfishness, the ignorance and racism, of the modern-day MAGA movement. Trump and MAGA, with their hate and arrogance, represent everything that Woody stood against.
Long live Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs and early Dylan!
They wrote songs about injustice. They wrote songs to make the world better! They wrote songs of compassion, empathy and hope!
“I hate a song that makes you think you’re not any good. I hate a song makes you think you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing.
Songs that run you down or songs that poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or your hard traveling.
“I am out to fight those kind of songs to my very last breath of air and my very last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that’ll prove to you that this is your world and that if it’s hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter how hard it’s run you down or rolled over you, no matter what colour, 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.”
His songs were about pride in our country, too. Of course it all starts with pride among people. He was the glass-half-full.
He had a vision of how things should be – equality and fairness – a very compassionate man who lived what he said.
Yes!
Just not sure about this patriotism. I’m not a big fan of patriotism and I always think that Woody was there for all people, all over the world.
He was both. I saw Arlo perform Woody’s songs, and he was terrible.
I saw Arlo but he didn’t do any Woody songs – did sign a couple of albums. He was good but not brilliant. Never really lived up to early promise.
Exactly!
Shame really. I think that film might have drained his confidence.
You make a point.