Love it. My sentiments exactly. Thanks, Jack.

Anyone that still concludes that the United States should have stayed out of WW2, is a shithead in my view.

(Sorry for the profanity.)

My family would not exist if that had occurred.

Howard Zinn said similarly, that the US should not have joined the war effort, that he felt guilty about serving in WW2. My wife told him that as he was bombing Germans in Hungary, that it was likely that she would not be alive if the US had not done so.

Guthrie's motive for supporting the war effort was the slogan on his guitar "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS".

Sometimes you have to go to war, even if its not literally self-defense, but just defending your allies, and every aspect of your life that you depend on.

Is that Iraq, NO?

Was that Germany, ABSOLUTELY?

Did your friend Ross understand "This Land is Your Land"? No way.

Its a pretty egregious negligence on his part, perception of spine or not.

tb, traci adkins, and the other broke back mtn boys are brave warriors in the vein of wolfie and wormy. urging america's troops to fight israel's created enemies. as the wolf and the worm sit in a tax supported kosher office drinking tax supplied kosher coffee, the gay blades fight from behind microphones chest puffed out like a puffy blouse and wearing sprayed-on jeans like a night walker.

usa produces only the finest: diaper wearing, tv jew-warriors and spandex, singing-cowboys using each other as horses.

Folk songs are whores.

Guthrie relishes the emotional release of his anger more than other, more restrained artists. You may agree with the point he's making or the side he's on, but still feel uncomfortable with his emotionality and moral smugness.

It also should be noted that Woody's position on the war changed when Hitler turned on Stalin. Prior to that he'd followed the CP's isolationist line.

Was Woody the Toby Keith of his day? That statement comes across more as emotional and designed to get a rise out of people than a judicious assessment of either artist's work, but I can see why your correspondent might make that comparison.

I notice that Toby is in real hot water for his new "pro-lynching" song. It's not racist so far as I can see, but to judge from the lyrics, it's impossible to deny that Keith supports the idea of taking the law into one's own hands.

Joe Klein wrote a great biography about the remarkable Woody Guthrie, titled "Woody Guthrie: A Life." It attracted a unanimous 5-star rating from 14 readers at Amazon — an assessment in which I concur.

http://tinyurl.com/5srvcv

For contemporary performances of some Woody Guthrie lyrics which he never got round to setting to music, check out Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II. The music and performances are by Wilco and Billy Bragg:

http://tinyurl.com/65rqeo
link to tinyurl.com

The difference between Toby Keith and Woody Guthrie is that Toby Keith hasn't written anything but doggerel, and will be forgotten a few years hence. Woody Guthrie's songs live on, because he was a talented and prolific writer.

Rescued from an archive, the 60-year-old songs on the Mermaid Avenue albums sound utterly fresh and contemporary. How many songwriters manage that?