I think Woody Guthrie's music deserves a revival. His see-through-you defiance of fascism and his anthemic support for solidarity among the working class seem like they might be very welcome in...
I think Woody Guthrie's music deserves a revival. His see-through-you defiance of fascism and his anthemic support for solidarity among the working class seem like they might be very welcome in current times.
As I was reading more background on Guthrie, I came across this fact that I thought some of you might also find interesting: In 1950, Guthrie rented an apartment from a landlord by name of Fred Trump. Guthrie's impression of Trump was one of disgust, motivating him to write lyrics for an (apparently never-performed) song called Old Man Trump. He references Trump again in another song called Ain't Got No Home.
Even the ones with lines about proudly killing Indians? Interstingly, the default DDG search engine result for "Roll On Columbia lyrics" does not include the line "We hung every Indian with smoke...
I think Woody Guthrie's music deserves a revival.
Even the ones with lines about proudly killing Indians?
Interstingly, the default DDG search engine result for "Roll On Columbia lyrics" does not include the line "We hung every Indian with smoke in their gun"...
What do you think? Is there possibly a sensible way to interpret my comment? Or are you seriously suggesting I'm excited about bringing back songs about killing Native Americans? Or is your...
Even the ones with lines about proudly killing Indians?
What do you think? Is there possibly a sensible way to interpret my comment? Or are you seriously suggesting I'm excited about bringing back songs about killing Native Americans? Or is your comment just a form of a value-signaling purist gotcha game? Look at my comment history and that of pretty much anyone on tildes and answer your own question. Commenters like you drive people away from this site.
I agree that the reply was overly harsh, but I can see where it came from. The previous comment didn’t just say “yeah, it’s a shame his other work says some much more concerning things” or “I...
I agree that the reply was overly harsh, but I can see where it came from. The previous comment didn’t just say “yeah, it’s a shame his other work says some much more concerning things” or “I think his other lyrics undermine what he’s saying in this song” or whatever, it had all the tone and structure of a gotcha, a call out, a dunk on someone else.
I don’t want to pile on too much, because it was a single short reply and I don’t think anyone should be made to feel too bad for that. I’m certainly far from perfect at expressing myself a lot of the time, that’s for sure. But it is one small and fairly benign example of something much larger that does genuinely bother me - and by the look of it bothers others too.
It’s a problem with internet discourse as a whole, a kind of adversarial point scoring rather than collaborative discussion. Rather than acknowledging the complexity in this famously anti-fascist, anti-racist artist trivialising the deaths of a marginalised group, the conversation gets framed in a way that links the comment in support of Guthrie’s good work to support of those unacceptable lyrics as well. It reads as a way to claim one further step of moral high ground, and take one further step “above” the person being replied to, not as a genuine concern for engaging with what it means for Guthrie to have said these things.
It’s not a big deal in a single comment, at all really, and I do want to apologise again for taking a pretty heavy tangent in the context of one specific example. But it absolutely is a big deal when repeated so often in so many conversations across the internet, and to that end I do think it still warrants proper discussion.
There's several covers of it on youtube from term 1. This seems fairly representative if succinct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko4eafwSY_I This elaboration is pretty decent:...
There's several covers of it on youtube from term 1.
I think Woody Guthrie's music deserves a revival. His see-through-you defiance of fascism and his anthemic support for solidarity among the working class seem like they might be very welcome in current times.
As I was reading more background on Guthrie, I came across this fact that I thought some of you might also find interesting: In 1950, Guthrie rented an apartment from a landlord by name of Fred Trump. Guthrie's impression of Trump was one of disgust, motivating him to write lyrics for an (apparently never-performed) song called Old Man Trump. He references Trump again in another song called Ain't Got No Home.
Even the ones with lines about proudly killing Indians?
Interstingly, the default DDG search engine result for "Roll On Columbia lyrics" does not include the line "We hung every Indian with smoke in their gun"...
What do you think? Is there possibly a sensible way to interpret my comment? Or are you seriously suggesting I'm excited about bringing back songs about killing Native Americans? Or is your comment just a form of a value-signaling purist gotcha game? Look at my comment history and that of pretty much anyone on tildes and answer your own question. Commenters like you drive people away from this site.
I agree that the reply was overly harsh, but I can see where it came from. The previous comment didn’t just say “yeah, it’s a shame his other work says some much more concerning things” or “I think his other lyrics undermine what he’s saying in this song” or whatever, it had all the tone and structure of a gotcha, a call out, a dunk on someone else.
I don’t want to pile on too much, because it was a single short reply and I don’t think anyone should be made to feel too bad for that. I’m certainly far from perfect at expressing myself a lot of the time, that’s for sure. But it is one small and fairly benign example of something much larger that does genuinely bother me - and by the look of it bothers others too.
It’s a problem with internet discourse as a whole, a kind of adversarial point scoring rather than collaborative discussion. Rather than acknowledging the complexity in this famously anti-fascist, anti-racist artist trivialising the deaths of a marginalised group, the conversation gets framed in a way that links the comment in support of Guthrie’s good work to support of those unacceptable lyrics as well. It reads as a way to claim one further step of moral high ground, and take one further step “above” the person being replied to, not as a genuine concern for engaging with what it means for Guthrie to have said these things.
It’s not a big deal in a single comment, at all really, and I do want to apologise again for taking a pretty heavy tangent in the context of one specific example. But it absolutely is a big deal when repeated so often in so many conversations across the internet, and to that end I do think it still warrants proper discussion.
I'm sorry. It was a clumsy way of letting others know that a blanket revival of Woodie Guthrie popularity comes with complications.
There's several covers of it on youtube from term 1.
This seems fairly representative if succinct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko4eafwSY_I
This elaboration is pretty decent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNEGfRZfBt8
Thanks!
Some good recordings:
Johnny Irion's US Elevator
Ryan Harvey, with Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello.