Well, folks & Frank especially,

If I got it wrong in MY talkin' blues (that I might've posted too quick), well, I'm sorry about that. I did write it!! I did not "mean" to "demean" the man's music or the fact that he was often a great guy. (puns intended) It's just hard for me to admire the kind of man that put his own egocentricity so in front of his commitments. That must be my big flaw---to take the commitments I've made seriously. If so, I guess I'll just have to live with that downside of my nature for the rest of my life. Actually, I've learned more from THE WORSE side of things than I ever did from THE BETTER side of my vows or my life.

Woody never read __THE GRAPES OF WRATH__. He saw the movie. But he gained the insight, in that round-about way, that allowed him to write "TOM JOAD"---a song that John Steinbeck said had told the migrant's story better than his own novel.

No, I never met Woody. But I DID read Joe Klein's book. It seemed quite insightful and well researched. It showed the mutiple layers of the man Woody was. I've accepted it as being as accurate as any biography ever is. Personally, I didn't want it to be a true picture of the man. I've romanticized the man as much as most folkies have. I suspect that Klein's book mainly is accurate. That's my gut feeling. In the 60s we all put pebbles in our boots so we might have the pain that'd allow us to write songs like Woody did. I romanticized the guy as much as anybody. We all made Woody into the LEGEND that he is NOW. My song was intended to view him fom 1999---not always fair, I know. We emulated his behavior back in the 60s. It was fun to do it. Some of the things I did were also pretty damn MEAN. Did O.K. music too some might avow. But the latter does not excuse the former I don't think.

Don Lange said in his song about his philandering grandad:

Here's to you rounders and here's to you railroad bums,
Here's hopin' that you make it home soon,
Here's to the women who married for love,
And lived with the man in the moon.

Art