‘What a great read , what a journey , If you like music you’ll love this book . From the folk roots of London to the crossroads of Robert Johnson . From the delta of blues through to Greenwich village ! From the Height Ashbury hippy time to Hull.’
A memoir of my life in Rock Music! Now available in both paperback or kindle. Or you can obtain a signed copy by emailing opher@hotmail.co.uk
There are some people that you never tire of hearing – Roy Harper, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James – Woody is one of them!
I could play him forever. He means a lot to me. One of the first guys to put lyrics of social importance into song. These songs tell of the struggle of ordinary people to achieve justice.
Woody Guthrie – Dust Bowl Ballads Volumes 1 & 2 (1940) Full Albums – YouTube
This World Is Our World
This world is our world,
This world is their world,
We share it,
We don’t own it
It belongs to all of us.
The green spirits,
The many creatures,
The rolling landscapes
Its glorious features.
This world is home for all of us.
This world is our world,
This world is their world,
We share it,
We don’t own it
It belongs to all of us.
The flowing rivers,
The majestic forests,
The herds and flocks,
So full of promise,
This world is home for all of us.
This world is our world,
This world is their world,
We share it,
We don’t own it
It belongs to all of us.
Opher – 10.2.2021
I was thinking of Woody Guthrie’s great anthem and extending it further.
We all share this planet. It’s our home. It is not just the people; it is nature in all its forms. We are all part of a great miraculous web of life that has taken billions of years to evolve.
Just as we people have to learn to get along in peace and prosper so too do we have to learn to get along with nature so that we can all flourish.
Nature is our life support.
It’s time we cherished each other, the world we live on, and all the life we share it with.
I’m presently reading this book on Woody Guthrie – it’s got some great quotes:
‘If I was President Roosevelt
I’d make the groceries free –
Give away new Stetson hats
And let the whiskey be.
I’d pass out suits of clothing
At least three times a week –
And shoot the first big oil man
That killed the fishing creek,’
My kind of sentiments!!
So who are those huddled masses that the USA took in? The refugees from Europe. The ones who were at the bottom of the heap, who could barely survive in the overcrowded cities of Europe; who were looking for space and opportunities.
Perhaps the ancestors of many of those now living in places like New Mexico and Texas? The intrepid pioneers who set off across America in wagon trains; who suffered hardship; who fought off the Native Americans and fought wars against the Mexicans; who took the land off those who lived there; who settled it and farmed, mined and hunted. Those are the ones.
Who are the huddled masses now?
The hard-pressed from Central America and South America, the Mexicans and Muslims from war-torn Middle East.
The dispossessed, frightened, hungry and oppressed looking for space, freedom and opportunities.
Who are the ones most stringently opposing their entry?
Perhaps it is time to take the Statue of Liberty down??
This is a short extract from the book on Woody Guthrie that I’m presently reading – Woody Guthrie’s Modern World Blues by Will Kaufman.
I’m enjoying it – even if at times it reads like a document submitted for a PhD.
‘Woody Guthrie even viewed the Capitalist system, which he hated, as an automobile.
This private profit machine
Has got eight cylinders
Greed. Fear. Lies. Hate.
Jail. Court. Asylum. Tomb.
Woody sure had a way of summing things up!
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.