Woody Guthrie

Phil Ochs – Outside of a Small Circle of Friends – Lyrics about apathy and an unwillingness to get involved with issues.

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Opher

Phil Ochs is a hero of mine. He believed that we should highlight injustices and do something about them; that we can change things for the better. He believed that we should never allow big corporations or government policy to bully us, cow us or continue without opposition.

He was one of those rare individuals who was prepared to make a stand and say what he felt. He stood for fairness, justice and freedom.

All too often people avoid confrontation and are content to get on with their own lives. They feel their life is alright; why make waves.

I contend that no life is alright while someone, somewhere is suffering.

While there are things that are wrong we should all make a noise, stand up and demand that it be put right.

That’s what the early Bob Dylan and the wonderful Phil Ochs did. They shouted it from the roof-tops.

This song was written in response to Phil having heard someone saying the title line and the story he had heard of a young girl who was stabbed to death in her own apartment in New York while none of the neighbours came to her rescue or even called the police.

When we lived in the USA we had a friend who had lived in New York for a couple of years. She had been raped three times. On one occasion the man took half an hour breaking down the door to her apartment to assault her. Not one of the neighbours opened a door or intervened.

I would like to believe that I would have done something.

This world is full of poverty, suffering, injustice, war, fanaticism, cruelty, environmental devastation and a burgeoning population that will be our nemesis. Where are our young generation of passionate activists?

Where are our new breed of Phils and Bobs when we desperately need them?

Outside of a Small Circle of Friends

Oh, look outside the window
There’s a woman being grabbed
They’ve dragged her to the bushes
And now she’s being stabbed

Maybe we should call the cops
And try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I’d hate to blow the game

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Ridin’ down the highway
Yes, my back is gettin’ stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up
They’re hangin’ on a cliff

Now maybe we should pull them back
With our towin’ chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued
And it looks like it’s gonna rain

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Sweatin’ in the ghetto
With the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies
Who are sleepin’ on the floor

Now wouldn’t it be a riot
If they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already
And besides we’ve got the cops

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Oh, there’s a dirty paper
Using sex to make a sale
The Supreme Court was so upset
They sent him off to jail

Maybe we should help the fiend
And take away his fine
But we’re busy reading Playboy
And the Sunday New York Times

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Smokin’ marihuana
Is more fun than drinkin’ beer
But a friend of ours was captured
And they gave him thirty years

Maybe we should raise our voices
Ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag
Besides we’re much too high

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Oh, look outside the window
There’s a woman being grabbed
They’ve dragged her to the bushes
And now she’s being stabbed

Maybe we should call the cops
And try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I’d hate to blow the game

And I’m sure
It wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Read more: Phil Ochs – Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Woody Guthrie’s guitar slogan – This Machine Kills Fascists’ – An extract from the book ’53 and Imploding’ that I am currently rewriting.

Posted on May 18, 2015August 12, 2016 by Opher

UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1970: Photo of Woody Guthrie Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images — UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Woody Guthrie Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Guthrie’s guitar slogan ‘This machine kills fascists’ is fascinating. First it highlights that a musical instrument is merely a machine and secondly it suggests that the power of reason is sufficient to change someone’s deep held views. I don’t know if that is true. Fascism is a corruption that spreads like pus from a burst appendix. It corrupts and degrades and produces the most terrible fevers and stench. It has to be disinfected or contained. Once it has caught hold it twists minds and eats away kindness until all that’s left is rancid hatred. Can love and reason turn that around? I guess you have to catch it young and educate those minds so that you inoculate them against this rancid cancer. It doesn’t stop me wanting to kill the bastards! I have to remind myself that violence begets violence, hatred breeds hatred and revenge merely creates cycles of revenge. As individuals and as a race we need to control our endocrinal urges and supersede them with cortex power – brain over glands – head over heart. Woody Guthrie knew that. He knew that you couldn’t kill fascism with a gun; you had to use education.

Phil Ochs – Lyrics that state the right to speak up against anything that is wrong!

Posted on April 25, 2015 by Opher

It is only by means of our dissidents that we can go forward. These are people who look at what is going on and are not afraid to shout about all the wrongs.

If something is wrong it needs highlighting. Phil was one of the few people who was prepared to constantly shout about it. The establishment is very good at manipulating us. That is really clear at the moment in the election. We are being subjected to all types of psychological ploys. The establishment media distorts the message, creates fears and insecurity and attempts to alter our minds.

We need people like Ochs and the early Dylan. They weren’t ‘Protest’ songs so much as social commentary. They woke me up and made me think about war, civil rights, fairness, justice and freedom. Too many people go through life without engaging their brain.

Phil was a shining light.

This should be the theme song of this blog!

I miss you Phil!

Phil Ochs – I’m Gonna Say it now
Oh I am just a student, sir
and only want to learn
But it’s hard to read through the risin’ smoke
of the books that you like to burn
So I’d like to make a promise
and I’d like to make a vow
That when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
Oh you’ve given me a number
and you’ve taken off my name
To get around this campus
why, you almost need a plane
And you’re supporting Chang Kai-Shek
while I’m supporting Mao
So when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
I wish that you’d make up your mind
I wish that you’d decide
That I should live as freely
as those who live outside
Cause we also are entitled
to the rights to be endowed
And when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
Ooh, you’d like to be my father
you’d like to be my Dad
And give me kisses when I’m good
and spank me when I’m bad
But since I’ve left my parents
I’ve forgotten how to bow
So when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
And things they might be different
if I was here alone
But I’ve got a friend or two
who no longer live at home
And we’ll respect our elders
just as long as they allow
That when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
I’ve read of other countries
where the students take a stand
Maybe even help to overthrow
the leaders of the land
Now I wouldn’t go so far to say
we’re also learnin’ how
But when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
So keep right on a-talkin’
and tell us what to do
If nobody listens
my apologies to you
And I know that you were younger once
’cause you sure are older now
And when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now
So I am just a student sir
and only want to learn
But it’s hard to read through the risin’ smoke
from the books that you like to burn
So I’d like to make a promise
and I’d like to make a vow
That when I’ve got something to say, sir
I’m gonna say it now

Read more: Ochs Phil – I’m Going To Say It Now Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Woody Guthrie – Lyrics with meaning. The age old problem of the exploitation of migrant workers. The inequality of the planet and callous disregard when it comes to profits.

Posted on April 20, 2015September 5, 2019 by Opher

Woody Guthrie was a champion of the underdog. He stood for fairness and equality against the exploitative bosses and racists. He stood on the picket lines and wrote songs that highlighted the callous indifference of bosses who used peoples poverty, misery and hopelessness to enhance their huge wealth.

Deportee was Woody’s song about the terrible plight of the poor Mexican wetbacks.

These poor people had no work or future in Mexico. They risked their lives crossing the Rio Grande and walking for days through the deserts in order to toil in the fields picking crops for a pittance.

After being worked to the bone they were shipped back to Mexico. They were cheap labour to be discarded when it became inconvenient.

One flight of migrant workers being deported back to Mexico crashed killing all on board. The crash hardly raised a headline. They were merely deportees.

Woody questioned the morality of how we are running the world. So that the rich can get richer and the poor kept in abject poverty so they can be exploited for cheap labour. Is this the way to create a society? To treat the desperate as criminals whose lives are cheap?

There’s a better way, a fairer way. We can solve world poverty and create a better system.

We can address the world overpopulation that is the driver behind most of the world’s problems and environmental destruction.

Woody gave them names. He highlighted the fact that they were human beings with dignity who were forced by circumstance to risk their lives again and again.

Deportee
(also known as “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos”)
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman

The crops are all in and the peaches are rott’ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They’re flying ’em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be “deportees”

My father’s own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract’s out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died ‘neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, “They are just deportees”

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except “deportees”?

Paul Simon – A Church is Burning – Lyrics about the Civil Rights movement and the Klu Klux Klan.

Posted on March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 by Opher

Paul Simon wrote this early on in his career when he was still a solo act. It is a brilliant song that captures the violence and ugliness of the terror tactics being used by the Klu Klux Klan to terrorise the black population in a vain attempt to stop the civil rights movement.

The civil rights movement came out of the Baptist Church and the white supremacists often targeted churches and the homes of activists for arson attacks. The stuck burning crosses in front of houses, rode through at night firing guns and actually lynched and shot people.

Fortunately a head of steam had been got up and people were not going to be intimidated. They wanted the vote and they wanted equality and freedom.

As Paul said – the idea of emancipation was not merely embellished in bricks and mortar; it was in the minds of the people and their bravery was indestructible.

There’s a way to go! We need more of that bravery now!

Help build a positive zeitgeist!

“A Church Is Burning”

A church is burning
The flames rise higher
Like hands that are praying
They grow in the sky
Like hands that are praying
The fire ascends
You can burn down my churches
But I shall be freeThree hooded men through the back roads did creep
Torches in their hands while the village lies asleep
Down to the church where, just hours before
Voices were singing, and
Hands were meeting, and
Saying, “I won’t be a slave anymore”A church is burning
The flames rise higher
Like hands that are praying
They glow in the sky
Like hands that are praying
The fire ascends
You can burn down my churches
But I shall be free

Three hooded men, their hands lit the spark
And they faded in the night, they vanished in the dark
And in the cold light of morning, there was nothing that remained
But the ashes of a Bible and a can of kerosene

A church is burning
The flames rise higher
Like hands that are praying
They glow in the sky
Like hands that are prayin’
The fire ascends
You can burn down my churches
But I shall be free

A church is more than just timber and stone
And freedom is a dark road when you’re walking it alone
But the future is now, and it’s time to take a stand
So the lost bells of freedom can ring out in my land

A church is burning
The flames rise higher
Like hands that are praying
They glow in the sky
Like hands that are praying
The fire ascends
You can burn down my churches
But I shall be free

Bob Dylan – Paths of Victory – Lyrics of victory against oppression and the certainty that Civil Rights would be there for all!

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Opher

Bob Dylan was a master at writing poetic songs of freedom and civil rights. Back in the early sixties the Civil Rights battle was raging. There was segregation and no votes for negroes in the Southern States.

Bob encapsulated the mood and determination of the civil rights movement. White activists joined with black activists and set about confronting the tyranny of the Klu Klux Klan and the collusion of the authorities.

Together they fought for equality and freedom. There was a need for basic human rights.

It still seems incredible that in a civilised country this should have been an issue only fifty years ago. Yet it is an issue that still persists in a small racist minority to this very day.

Check out our ancestry. We all came from Africa – black, yellow and white. We are only 200,000 years new as a species. We are all brothers and sisters.

Bob’s song was a celebration of the victory that was to come.

Where are the new Bob’s? The new voices of dissent? The new protests about the inequality going on around us?

Help build a new positive zeitgeist! We can change the world! Long live freedom, tolerance, peace, love and harmony!!

Bob Dylan – Paths Of Victory

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
I shall walk.

The trail is dusty
And my road it might be rough,
But the better roads are waiting
And boys it ain’t far off.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

I walked down by the river,
I turned my head up high.
I saw that silver linin’
That was hangin’ in the sky.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The evenin’ dusk was rollin’,
I was walking down the track.
There was a one-way wind a-blowin’
And it was blowin’ at my back.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The gravel road is bumpy,
It’s a hard road to ride,
But there’s a clearer road a-waitin’
With the cinders on the side.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

That evening train was rollin’,
The hummin’ of its wheels,
My eyes they saw a better day
As I looked across the fields.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

The trail is dusty,
The road it might be rough,
But the good road is a-waitin’
And boys it ain’t far off.

Trails of troubles,
Roads of battles,
Paths of victory,
We shall walk.

‘All You Fascists Bound to Lose’ – Woody Guthrie lyrics brought to life by Billy Bragg. Religious fanatics, political tyrants and those who practice hate, intolerance and cruelty – you have no future!

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Opher

Woody was highly prophetic. This song was written about fascists like Hitler, Mussolini, the Klu Klux Klan and other xenophobic racists of the first order but it applies equally well to ISIS, the Taliban, Al Shabaab, AlQaeda and Boko Haraam – all the fanatical thugs who are practicing their intolerance and hatred right now.

Woody believed that you did not destroy fascism with guns; you killed it in the minds of people. That is why it is so important to look at the horrors or fanaticism, intolerance and hatred and prevent people being sucked in to that twisted ideology. Education is the key; understanding and respect.

Regardless – the whole world is getting organised to wipe out the evil caliphate. It is now just a question of how much pain and misery they can inflict in the mean-time.

Humans are vicious animals but love will conquer over hate.

All You Fascists Bound To Lose

I’m gonna tell all you fascists, you may be surprised
People all over this world are getting organized
You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose

Race hatred cannot stop us, this one thing I know
Poll tax and Jim Crow and greed have got to go
You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose

All you fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You’re bound to lose, you fascists
Are bound to lose

People of every color marching side by side
Marching across these fields where a million fascists died
You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose

All you fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You’re bound to lose, you fascists
Are bound to lose

I’m going into this battle, take my union gun
Gonna end this world of slavery before this war is won
You’re bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose

All you fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You’re bound to lose, you fascists
Are bound to lose

I said, all you fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You fascists are bound to lose
You’re bound to lose, you fascists
Are bound to lose

Read more: Wilco – All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Soil erosion – Woody Guthrie – Dust Storm Disaster lyrics – the true story of human created disaster.

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Opher

The whole region of Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, once a fertile land was transformed into a great dust bowl in the 1930s due to over-farming, grubbing out of hedges, removal of trees and over-grazing. The quality of the soil cohesion was reduced and it was subject to erosion. When it was dry and the wind got up it blew the soil away creating huge dust storms that buried whole regions. It destroyed communities, made farming impossible and created illness and mass migration.

It is a salutary lesson for the way we manage the world. We cannot simply go on and on mistreating the land, polluting and increasing our population. There is a tipping point.

And if you think it was bad for humans just consider the impact on the flora and fauna!

Woody Guthrie documented this disaster in one of his many brilliant songs about the devastating effect of this man-made disaster.

Dust Storm Disaster
(aka. The Great Dust Storm)
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

On the 14th day of April of 1935,
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm comin’, the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.

From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom.

The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.

From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but they didn’t know how long.

Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was cryin’ as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.

The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night,
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight.
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.

It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down that highway to never come back again.

Opher’s World Tributes to Rock Geniuses – Book Launch – Now available on Kindle for just £1.99 – Enjoy!!

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Opher

My new book is already up on Kindle and Amazon. I’ve already started on the Part 2!!

I hope you love it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!

Part 2 will follow in a while!!

I’m doing the Nick Harper book first though!!

PS – The photo of Lee Scratch Perry is one I took a couple of years ago!!

A selection of Opher’s other books for your delectation! (I’m having a bit of a marketing push!!)

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Opher

Whatever your taste (as long as it’s extreme and quirky) I have a book for it!!

Other selected Books by Opher Goodwin you may enjoy:

Rock Music and The Sixties

In Search of Captain Beefheart – A memoir of a life spent in Rock Music (Beefheart’s only a small bit)
537 Essential Rock Albums Pt. 1 – the first 270. – A description of what I consider to be the best 537 albums ever released.
The Tales of a Sixties Freak – A look at life in London during the sixties and what the Underground was all about.
Goofin’ with the Cosmic Freaks – A novel that is a kind of ‘On the Road’ for the sixties.

Art and Philosophy

Opher’s Art and Outpourings – a book of my artwork in the 70s along with selected writings about and around them.

The Environment

Anthropocene Apocalypse – My own observations as a Biologist of the terrible destruction of the environment and how we can put it right.

Education

A Passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher – my life in education as a Headteacher, teacher and pupil and what I believe in when it comes to learning.

Sci-Fi

Green – a futuristic story about infinity within and without, the environment and the universe.
Nosedive – An adventure about alien contact
Intergalactic Rockstar – the Story of an intergalactic Rock Band in some far off time that resembles the sixties, their rise to fame, adventures and demise. It mixes two of my big pleasures!

For all my other books – check out Opher Goodwin on Amazon. They have the full range on Kindle and paperback.

Or check out my Blog – Opher’s World – there are masses of controversial writings! I’m doing my bit to entertain and save the planet!!

Do not despair – there are more books on the way!!

Enjoy and best wishes – Opher.