[One of my gurus, Jack Ross, 23, had some comments re Pete Seeger, whom I hagiographied yesterday. I don't agree with Jack here, I luv Seeger, but some of his asides are sharp, so I'm passing them along…]
I
do begrudge Seeger for his history, though I guess I really should be
thankful he did so much to clean up the Hudson. I hate "This Land Is Your Land", and the whole of Woody Warmonger's repertoire. Woody Guthrie really was nothing but the Toby Keith
of the New Deal era.
I remember my horror to learn that he composed a
Hanukkah song and that the cantor of my shul was singing it at some family Hanukkah service I happened to find myself at.
Still,
if you get the chance, tell Seeger that you have a crazy young friend
who has recordings of such long forgotten chestnuts of his as "Conscription
Bill" and "UAW-CIO Makes the Army Roll and Go". The former was the
best of the Almanac antiwar songs (Chorus: Oh Franklin Roosevelt/Told
the people how he felt/We damn near believed what he said/He said I
Hate War/And so does Eleanor/But we won't be safe till everybody's
dead), the latter had a revival as a favorite bit with which SDS would
make fun of the CP.
Tell him also that I think of the following verse from "Listen Mr. Bilbo" every time I walk over the Brooklyn Bridge:
In 1609 on a bright summer's day,
The Half Moon set anchor in old New York Bay,
Henry Hudson, a Dutchman took a good look around,
He said 'Boys this is gonna be a hell of a town!'
And
finally also tell him that I also have the recording of his song about the Yiddish-speaking collective farm.
[Weiss. I asked Ross who Toby Keith is.]
Toby Keith is not the best example, only the most famous – my point was
that Woody Guthrie was just the New Deal version of the crass pro-Bush
country singer who isn't even all that country.
