Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. At Blue Sky and Twitter: as @gregmitch. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.
Surprised and happy to find a rarity just emerging Tuesday. I remember very well a TV special from 2009, derived from writings on the “common man” by Howard Zinn and narrated by him—and (I believe) engineered by his fan boys Affleck and Damon. Springsteen sang his “Ghost of Tom Joad,” Eddie Vedder did “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” and John Legend, Taj Mahal, and others added their voices.
Bob Dylan performed one of my favorite Woody songs, “Do Re Mi,” with my man Ry Cooder on guitar and Van Dyke Parks on piano! Now, almost 16 years later, appearing suddenly, is an outtake from the filming with Dylan (with Cooder and Parks) offering one of the great songs of the century, inspired by Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”—Woody Guthrie’s “Vigilante Man.”
Of course, Ry owns this song post-Woody, back in his younger days:
And, also inspired by Steinbeck, Springsteen and Tom Morello live, with “Ghost of Tom Joad.”
Trump toured the Kennedy Center in D.C. —which he now heads—on Wednesday and there claimed he had gifted musical abilities as a kid that he was not allowed to develop. “I have a high aptitude for music,” he said. “Can you believe that? That’s why I love music.” Cue Kid Rock, “YMCA,” Ted Nugent, Lee Greenwood….From The New York Times:
Asked about the anecdote, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, did not directly address it but said that the president “is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels.” Mr. Cheung said that, given Mr. Trump’s roles as president and Kennedy Center chair, “there is nobody more uniquely qualified to bring this country, and its rich history of the arts, back to prominence.”
But editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes at her Substack on Wednesday: One of his favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof and “when he was a young man Mr. Trump had dreams of one day becoming a Broadway producer himself. Now, he said, the Kennedy Center’s focus would be on producing ‘Broadway hits.’” She produced this image:
More Cartoons….
Steve Brodner:
Looking forward to this:
Sorry, embarrassing flub in my oriignal, it was Howard Zinn not Chomsky, and I even met and had dinner with Howard and admired him (going back to his anti-Vietnam war writing and People's History), and knew that Damon and Affleck supported his books bringing him a wider audience. Sheesh.
Please don’t fret! Your music and cartoons bring us so much joy and relief from the daily tears and despair, we are not concerned about one little honest mistake.