What Would Woody Do?

Subject: What Would Woody Do?
From:
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 01:54 PM

Remembering the photo of Woody singing with a sign on his guitar saying, "THIS MACHINE FIGHTS FACISTS" made me wonder. In this age of terrorists and mega-states, of collective guilt and smart weapons...where whould he stand. What would he say. And what would he sing.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST,From the interest generated...
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 03:59 PM

he'd save his breath.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 04:44 PM

More to the point, what would Scooby Doo do?

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Suffet
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 06:03 PM

"This land I'll defend with my life if need be..."


Could it be any clearer? The question isn't what Woody would have done. The question is: what are we going to do? This isn't some ill conceived neo-colonial adventure like Vietnam or some campaign to pull a petty emir's petroleum soaked chestnuts out of the Iraqi fire. This is a war that was thrust upon us, not one of our own choosing. Woody, and Pete, and the legendary folksingers of their generation were, above all, patriots. And when their country -- our country -- was attacked they knew exactly what had to be done.

"This is the reason that I want to fight,
Not 'cause everything's perfect or everything's right,
No, it's just the opposite, I'm fighting because,
I want a better America and better laws,
And better homes and jobs and schools,
And no more Jim Crow and no more rules,
Like you can't ride on this train 'cause you're a Negro,
You can't live here 'cause you're a Jew,
You can't work here 'cause you're a union man."

From DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
by Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers


--- Steve

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 06:16 PM

"they knew exactly what had to be done" - the trouble is, this time there isn't a enemy out there to see, with armies and navies and troops on the ground and that. If it's a war, it's like no other war.

In fact ironically enough, the term "jihad" is probably closer to it than anything.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 06:23 PM

What Woody DID was sing to the troops in the belly of a Liberty Ship on the way to England.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 06:30 PM

I knew Woody. He would have questioned why we have ignored the poor Arabs of the world. He would have been sympathetic to their plight and grieved that an opportunist like Bin Laden would exploit them. He would have asked the business community in New York City why they didn't spend their resources on the poor population of the so-called Third World. He would have asked why we spent our money on training and supporting such people economically and militarilly as Noriega, Mbotu, the death squads of Central America, Sadaam Hussein and ultimately Usama Bin Laden.

Woody would have written a song about it which probably would have been ignored by many.

Frank

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 01:15 AM

What were their names?
Tell me, what we're their names?
Did you have a friend
On the good Rueben James?

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: John Hindsill
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 01:52 AM

It's not so much what Woody'd do, but what you and I, and all of us will do. Woody has been gone for half-a-century (considering his illness), but we are here and can act, either as we think he might or, better yet, as our conscience dictates; that may even be be the same.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Suffet
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 06:12 AM

What is interesting is that wherever I have turned these past few days I have heard people singing "God Bless America." Not "The Star Spangled Banner," not "America the Beautiful," not even "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and certainly not "This Land Is Your Land."

Woody Guthrie, as almost all of us know by now, wrote "This Land Is Your Land" as a specific response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." In fact the original title was to have been "God Blessed America" and the tagline was to have been "God blessed America for me." Some people have argued that Guthrie's song was intended as a refutation of Berlin's. But if you listen closely to the lyrics of both you can see what Woody wrote was an enhancement not a refutation, a repetition of the same basic theme from a different voice. Essentially both Berlin and Guthrie spoke with the voice of a patriot. Berlin's voice was that of an immigrant who made good in his new land; his patriotism was unquestioning and unqualified. Guthrie's voice was that of a native son whose forebears were here sufficiently long for him, Woody, to raise some difficult questions and concerns without being accused of being ungrateful.

What would Woody have done? We can only speculate. But here's a menu of likely options. Choose one or more to suit your own image of him. Woody would have...

...joined people in singing "God Bless America."

...led people in singing "This Land Is Your Land."

...led people in singing "New York Town" with a few new verses added to honor the strength and lift the spirits of New Yorkers.

...written new words to "So Long It's Been Good to Know You" to describe the incident.

....made up a new song, "All You Terrorists Bound to Lose" right on the spot.

...lit up a Lucky Strike.

...downed a couple of boliermakers.

...sang songs in the staging area to the rescue workers, volunteers, firefighters, etc., celebrating both their particular determination and that of Americans in genereal.

...gotten laid.


Feel free to add to this menu.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 09:44 AM

Good thoughts, Steve. I guess I'll sing "This Land Is My Land" this evening at a small senior citizen grange benefit in our coastal Maine town; I know I can get through it. I'll also do "Roseville Fair" and finish with "Irene, Good-night." And I'll think of my niece and her schoolmates who survived in their school three blocks from the WTC.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST,Phil Shapiro
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 01:31 PM

Just FYI, Dana Robinson has written a song called "What Would Woody Do?" with a great chorus. I don't think he's recorded it yet.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Justa Picker
Date: 15 Sep 01 - 01:48 PM

I posted this quote back in January.
This thread seemed like an appropriate place to refresh those words.


"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and your work.

And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow."

- Woody Guthrie, 1912-1967

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 19 Sep 01 - 02:47 AM

Oh, Steve!
Beautifully said!
Genie

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 19 Sep 01 - 02:50 AM

You, too, Frank!
Genie

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: DougR
Date: 19 Sep 01 - 03:17 AM

Nobody knows what Woody would do. He never experienced this kind of tragedy, as most of us, at least in the USA, haven't. What would Gene Autry do? Tex Ritter? Geeze.

DougR

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Sep 01 - 07:55 PM

I suppose the thing is Woody Guthrie is closer to being a kind of benchmark than the others. People have thought about the words, and they know they are his words, and they they think of him as someone they respect and feel they can test their ideas with. Not primarily as an entertainer.

Right now I can't think of any other dead singers I can imagine anyone feeling that way about. Well, maybe John Lennon.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: X-Ed
Date: 20 Sep 01 - 12:45 AM

Woody would be pecking heads.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 03 - 07:35 PM

Phil Shapiro,

I just heard this song on our local community radio station. Great song. It looks as though Dana Robinson has recorded it now: Dana Robinson. Thanks for mentioning it so that I could find out more about it.

kat

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 02 Mar 03 - 08:50 PM

"What would Woody do ?"
At the very least he would be capable of spelling "Fascists"
His guitar (and he, himself) are shown in the photo Woody


Nigel

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 Mar 03 - 12:09 AM

Like every coin, there were two sides to Woody Guthrie---probably more depending on his mental state at any given time.

He was a pacifist who had a violent streak when the situation seemed to necessitate that. He was the one who wrote peace-full songs, and he was the man who would pull the trigger on the gun that killed EAST TEXAS RED when tha latter dumped the life-giving sustenance (the stew) of the down and out hobos in that jungle camp.

Woody would've evaluated the situation the best he could, and then he would act accordingly. That is pretty much what I would do. And I do suspect it is pretty much what all of you would do. And our decisions---our actions---would would be all over the map----just like our so-called solutions to this crisis are all over the may here in the myriad Mudcat threads.

In keeping with my own personal outlook on this life I'm in, for 25 years the top of my banjo proclaimed in large letters (ala Woody---but mostly just me)----

THIS MACHINE KILLS TIME

art thieme

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Mar 03 - 08:03 PM

Interesting seeing this thread again, and thinking how time has moved on. I was particularly struck by Suffet's post up the top of the thread, and especially the words:

"This isn't some ill conceived neo-colonial adventure like Vietnam or some campaign to pull a petty emir's petroleum soaked chestnuts out of the Iraqi fire. This is a war that was thrust upon us, not one of our own choosing." Well, that was September 14th 01...

Woody had two sides, as Art said, but then the only thing that doesn't have two sides is a flat picture. Real objects and real people have to have two sides, and the two side have to be joined together - in this case for example by a vision of how things could be and should be and aren't.

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: InOBU
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:41 PM

Nigel, lay off on the spelling coments... Fact is Woody would have lived through the Viet Nam era, the rest of what made many of us who we are, and to say the Woody of the WWII era would be the Woody of today, is not an intelectually important statement... my question, and maybe it is the effect of the Yippies on my teen years, is ... what would Woody Woodpecker do...
Cheers
Pepittipepou
Larry

Subject: RE: What Would Woody Do?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 08:09 PM

Ask not what Woody would have done, write your own songs and act accordingly while there is still time.

I said that!

Woody did what he could, with great personal bravery and sacrifice in his own time. Yes, he should be a continuing inspiration to us all.

Charley Noble