A holiday special today featuring one of the greatest, and most politically influential, Americans ever, Woody Guthrie. Plus a few timely cartoons. Enjoy, then subscribe—it’s still free but I need to be encouraged to keep this going!
Years ago, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy in Grammy-winning Mermaid Avenue album, with Billy Bragg, took old lyrics by Woody and turned them into splendid new tunes, such as my favorite, “California Stars,” here with my man Jason Isbell on hot guitar.
Bragg and Wilco returned with what should be a hit—this week: “All You Fascists Bound to Lose.” Let’s hope.
Below, Dylan pays tribute to Woody’s classic about Dust Bowl refugees, “Do-Re-Mi.” Ry Cooder on guitar.
Rosanne Cash sings another Woody portrait of the dispossessed, “I Ain’t Got No Home.”
“Vigilante Man”—like Bruce Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad”—was inspired by Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” below by guitar master Ry Cooder.
Below, U2 with a rocking version of Woody’s “Jesus Christ” (who would be killed even quicker today).
Below, an all-star offering of “This Land Is Your Land” with Arlo Guthrie, Neil Young, John Prine, Willie Nelson and more. And below that, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen perform the song for the Obama inaugural.
Another all-star rendering of the great “Deportee” with Joan Baez, Emmylou and Jackson Browne.
Cartoons Wednesday
Barry Blitt:
Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels, the current The Beginning or the End, and The Campaign of the Century, which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. For all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he won more than a dozen awards as editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and now has written and directed three documentaries, including two for PBS since 2022.
Loved all the songs. What happened to us as a country from the optimism of the Obama inauguration to the mean spiritism of 2024?
Great songs!!