The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69861   Message #1191122
Posted By: GUEST
21-May-04 - 07:07 PM
Thread Name: Woody Guthrie Birthday Bash IV
Subject: RE: Woody Guthrie Birthday Bash IV
I'm looking forward to singing Ticky Tock. Woody wrote the words, and the music was added by the German singer Wenzel. The song was published in Sing Out. Nora Guthrie heard Wenzel in Germany (she's married to a German)and said to herself "aha". She got him to come to New York and look through the Guthrie archive. Wenzel wrote some very good music to some of Woody's previously unrecorded lyrics. On one level Ticky Tock is a nice children's song about the ticking of a clock. On another level it's about how no one can escape the passage of time. Since it was written near the end of Woody's life he must have known time was running out on him. Wenzel is a charming performer. He did a concert in New York at German house and he sang Ticky Tock while playing piano and tapping water-filled glasses. Then he sang the song in German and it sounded good to me even though I don't understand German.