Come Back, Woody Guthrie

Plus: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Ry Cooder, and our usual cartoons.

Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films. Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of my books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!

You no doubt read something about Trump hosting the Kennedy Center Honors over the weekend (and what a list of honorees, including the KISS guys). The annual airing via CBS comes on Dec. 23. But if you can’t wait, one quote by emcee Trump which may not make the telecast:

“If there is one thread that connects all of these amazing artists together, it is the word ‘persistence.’ I can say that with a lot of the members of our audience — I know so many of you, and you are persistent. Many of you are miserable, horrible people. But you are persistent, you never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t.”

Barry Blitt’s commentary on the evening:

This is real, see link:

Politico:

The Strange and Totally Real Plan to Blot Out the Sun and Reverse Global Warming

A 25-person startup is developing technology to block the sun and turn down the planet’s thermostat. The stakes are huge — and the company and its critics say regulations need to catch up.

And here is a link to important article for music fans at NY Times.

The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes

New problems are plaguing old reels, putting decades of history at risk. One man, armed with hair dryers and a love of tinkering, is leading the charge to rescue them.

Not many out there who would call this a “favorite Christmas song,” but I am a little different. It’s Woody Guthrie’s fantastic narrative of the “1913 Massacre” where dozens of kids at a Christmas party lost their lives in Calumet, Michigan, trampled or suffocated on the stairs after someone from the local copper mining outfit (which had just survived a strike) yelled “Fire.” So first, a very brief story about the song from the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa:

Now here’s Bob Dylan in 1961 singing that song after briefly mentioning his recent visits with Woody. You may notice that he borrowed the tune for his “Song to Woody,” which Timothee movingly sang to Guthrie in “A Complete Unknown.”

More linking Woody and Christmas: Joan Baez joined Steve Earle here for Steve’s “Christmas in Washington,” and its refrain “Come back Woody Guthrie, come back to us all.”

And finally, there’s Ry Cooder on his most recent solo album, “Jesus and Woody”: So sing me a song about fascists bound to lose / you were a dreamer Mr. Guthrie / and I was a dreamer too

From Tunes to Toons

Bramhall:

KAL:

Clay Jones:

Heller:

Photo Finish

Continuing our new feature, from my camera to you, let us know what you think:

“Over the Alps to Italy.”