The Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert at the Kennedy Center: Some Good Music, and some Dreadful Politics
Woody’s great protégé, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who played and lived with Woody for three years in the 1950s, and introduced his music to thousands in this country and Britain, sang a poignant “1913 Massacre,” Guthrie’s rendition of the killing of coal miner’s children and wives in the Ludlow Colorado strike of that year by company thugs. Only Jack Elliott can capture Guthrie’s voice and the power of his lyrics, and it is a shame that he was only allotted one song on his own. He did, however, lead the entire group of performers in a rousing “This Train is Bound for Glory,” Woody’s theme song. Listening to his voice, it was as if Woody was still among us.
I started with the good part. Unfortunately, the entire event was marred by the hard Left narrative particularly voiced in the most offensive manner by two artists, Tom Morello and Ry Cooder. At least Cooder is a real musician, but that does not excuse his behavior and his leftist rants delivered both in asides and in the rewriting of Guthrie’s lyrics. Cooder sang a little known Guthrie song written towards the end of WW II about how the fascists would all lose. Cooder commented, to great applause from the leftist audience, that we won that fight, but the fascists were still here, and he knew they would be defeated on election day. Singing Guthrie’s “Vigilante Man,” about hired thugs of the coal companies in the early 20th Century, Cooder changed a lyric to make it about the Trayvon Martin case. He could have grown up to be President, he said, “but he was killed by a vigilante man.” Then he sang a new verse about how those in the audience should not tell anyone that they attended the concert, or they too might be killed!
Does Ry Cooder really believe that paying an average of $100 for a Kennedy Center concert could lead anyone to be harmed, not to say murdered? Doesn’t he know that by now, Woody Guthrie is a celebrated national hero, honored and revered by many, and no kind of danger to anyone who sings his songs?
As for Tom Morello, I would like to think that Arlo – a registered Republican and a libertarian – would blanch at having to listen to his songs and his hectoring lectures to the audience. Instead of singing one of Guthrie’s tunes, he sang his own dreadful new song about how he wants a revolutionary woman, “a Weather Underground woman,” not any bourgeois liberal. A man devoted to the dwindling and extremist Occupy Wall Street movement, Morello revealed himself to be a total idiot. Morello sang some lyrics about “how if you’re a Republican, Democrat or KKK, I’m not your man.” Do all those who cheered him – many of them most likely Democrats themselves- really believe because they vote and work in our democratic system-that they are the same as members of the Klan? Or are they just self-hating, middle-class, well-off liberals who like to think they too support the revolution because they can cheer the likes of Morello whose rants assuage their guilty consciences?
Ronnie: Shades of Edath Seagal. Inappropriate guilt is really an unattractive thing. I remember hearing a screed by John Updike at Coe College ( aliberal arts college)where Updike excoriated the audience–much of whom were respected academics, who diligently worked in their respective groves–about how terrible the liberal arts education was. To my horror, the audience laughed and applauded!
Thank you for attending our Kennedy Center concert. I read your blog and here are some corrections.
Married in 1969, Arlo & Jackie Guthrie celebrated their 43rd anniversary this month.
“Ease My Revolutionary Mind” is a Woody Guthrie lyric that Nora Guthrie invited Tom Morello to compose music for. The song was released in 2011 on “Note of Hope”, which kicked off our centennial celebrations. Here is a link to Woody’s original lyrics – http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Ease_My_Revolutionary_Mind.htm
The Kennedy Center concert was filmed by documentary film maker, Jim Brown, for archival purposes.
Thank you,
Anna Canoni
Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
I stand corrected. Woody’s song, however, has humor and fun. He uses petty bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat mockingly. I still object to his equating Republicans and Democrats with the Klan. But it’s one thing to say he wants a liberal woman to Morello’s verse that he wants a Weather Underground woman. I doubt whether Woody, were he still with us, would have shared that sentiment.
How sad to hear about Arlo Guthrie’s wife and also about the crazy left taking over the tribute to his father. People like Morello and Cooder (too bad, because the latter can really play) have sick souls, and they can and do infect the soul of others while they are ruining events like this. The shame is that no one on that stage tried to step in and stop the nonsense. Why not?
Well, I wasn’t there, but I have been following Ry Cooder for a long time – he has always played Woody’s music (Vigilante Man, Do Re Mi). Is there any doubt that the Martin case involved a Vigilante? The police directly instructed him to stay away from Martin, and he decided to carry out the “justice” on his own. The very definition of Vigilante!
The tone of the comments of the author many others is amusing in context: Woody Guthrie said (I’m not a communist but I always been in the red) and he wrote a column for the Daily Worker (the communist paper, for those who don’t know) So God Forbid someone talks politics at at Woody Guthrie Memorial! Lets keep it safe (shut up and sing!).