Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl

Subject: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 09:16 PM

I'm not a football fan, but I do read twitter and spotted a lede to do with Lada Gaga performing This Land is Your Land to open tonight's Superbowl halftime program.

This piece from Vanity Fair reveals some deeper intentions in her selection of this song. It served several purposes - sounding patriotic and suitable for family consumption, but the final verses (should Trump or his cabinet ever stumble across them) might see a belligerent raised middle finger contained in the later verses of the song.

As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said
"No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief
office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood
there asking Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom
highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land
was made for you and me.

[The linebreaks are from the article, not necessarily from the original song itself]

Lady Gaga Made an Edgy Political Statement You Might Have Missed at the Super Bowl

The hidden statement in Gaga's glitzy halftime show.

See the rest of the article, and a link to the Gaga performance, by following the link.

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 09:38 PM

Kinda hard to make an "edgy" statement without singing the "edgy" verses, but she did put on a good show. I've seen the missing verses from "This Land Is Your Land" referred to as "the Communist verses." I actually found one Woody Guthrie recording of the song that didn't include those verses, either.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 09:49 PM

I haven't viewed the entire half time show (I'm not a football fan and and old episode of Columbo finishes in a few minutes). I suspect there will be a lot of close reading of everything she sang and did, considering the times in which we live.

In the critical sense, she passed a text (the song) over an event, and even if the entire song wasn't performed, it is, as the article notes, a "dog whistle" for many viewers.

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 04:41 AM

From Democracy Now 20 January 2009

That was Barack Obama on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday before hundreds of thousands of people. The event ended with a rousing round of this "This Land Is Your Land." Pete Seeger was the special guest. He sang with Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger's grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.

Now, many people — I'm sure you know "This Land Is Your Land." But what he managed to do is sing the original song, the rarely performed Woody Guthrie verse : "I came to a sign that said private property, but on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me."

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 05:12 AM

I'm curious: would this song be regarded as radical in America generally, or would it be seen as claiming the country for Americans, not those pesky migrants?

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 07:32 AM

Good question, Thompson, but consider that Woody also wrote another great song, Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) which I was surprised to learn wasn't in the DT. BTW, I'm not a particular fan of her music but Gaga put on a hell of a show, though I seemed to have missed the portion mentioned in this thread.


Deportee
(aka. "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos")
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman

The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 10:21 AM

WashPo has a good article on this...

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 11:19 AM

Deportees in the DT.

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: GUEST,Tom Mycock
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 11:20 AM

"would this song be regarded as radical in America generally, or would it be seen as claiming the country for Americans, not those pesky migrants?"

I guess it depends on what "you" it's sung to. I take "this land is your land" as pretty welcoming. But it would be a lot more reactionary if it was "my land" and "our land" but not "your land".

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 11:24 AM

She went through a bunch of songs. She sang 15 words from "This Land..."

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 03:18 PM

Thanks, Jeri. The DT calls it Deportees instead of Deportee.

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 04:02 AM

Isn't the Washington Post owned by Jeff Bezoz?

Subject: RE: Lady Gaga channels Woody Guthrie 2017 SuperBowl
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 08:23 AM

Yes. Bezos. New York Times article.

Why? Does it have to do with Lady Gaga or Woody Guthrie?