The Friday Fillip: Guthrie

Now that Christmas and New Year’s are safely tucked away, we can move on to things less ritual, less structured. But before we do, I’m going to take one last kick at the cans—because that’s the nature of the ghosts of Christmas past and auld lang syne, is it not? to linger nostalgically for a bit.

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I seem to recall that as an adolescent I used to get a lot of shirts from Santa. Imagine my delight. And then one year my parents (yes, I knew by then: I was always sharp as a tack) gave me an LP with the cover you see to your left. I remember to this day my extreme puzzlement at this. What made them think that these old and, frankly, not very attractive penguins could make music that would interest me in the least? By the end of Christmas Day I had, Alice-like, fallen down the rabbit hole into the wonder of folk music, as she was then known. And labour songs. And protest music. And, indeed, protest.

If, by any chance, you’ve never heard (or heard of) the Weavers, here’s a not very good clip of one of their more popular songs: This Land is Your Land.

Which leads me to New Year’s. Because the writer of that song was Woody Guthrie, the very model of the American folk-singing, pro-labour protester; and I’ve just come across his “New Years Rulin’s” (sic) from 1942, which recommend themselves to me more than most of the resolutions that get batted about. For one thing, as you’ll see below (click on it to expand), there are some 33 of them, which gives you lots of room for successes. And for another, they’re an affecting mix of light-hearted and serious, ranging from “Drink very scant if any” to “Wake up and fight.”

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You’ll find this and the lyrics to all of Woody’s dozens and dozens of songs on the official site.

#26. Dance Better.

Comments

  1. Ah, the Weavers. I think I had a copy of that album or one similar. I love seeing Lee Hays and Pete Seeger in formal dress on the cover. It was not long after this concert that they were blacklisted, right?

    I have a similar story to yours Simon. In the summer of 1963 my parents went off for a weekend Buffalo, something folks in Ontario did in those days mainly because you could have a drink when and where you wanted, you could see a movie on Sunday, and generally take part in other such debauched activities. My mother returned home with a present for me–a copy of Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Almost no one in this part of the world except for us folkies who read Sing Out and Broadside magazines had ever heard of the guy. What a world that opened up. After they heard him sing my parents forbade me from playing the record on the family record player while they were in the house but I still managed to listen to it 10 or 15 times a day. It was everything an adolescent boy could want: it was radical (Masters of War, Oxford Town,etc), it was mournful (Girl from the North Country, etc.) and perhaps most importantly in the song “I Shall be Free” it made reference to Brigitte Bardot. It beat hell out of Pete singing “Goodnight Irene”.

    cheers

  2. Neil Guthrie (no relation)

    Damn! There I was, briefly thinking the Friday Fillip was all about me…

  3. Oh Neil, I did too! ;)

    I was more the Arlo Guthrie era than Woodie Guthrie; however when I saw the Weavers live on stage at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the premier of the documentary “Wasn’t This a Time: A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal,” it was quite a thrill. I grew up with Peter, Paul & Mary’s classic “Puff the Magic Dragon” so seeing Pete Seeger in person was something I will always remember.