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.”