Woody Guthrie.Who was?"This is your country, this is my country."Book review - music

Life did not stroke Woody Guthri on his head.He didn't even manage to fully enjoy his childhood when the first tragedies fell on him.Mother's incurable disease, the tragic death of the sister, the need to wander here is here, there is a half dollar on a bowl of beans...Collecting kicks from the police and guards on the railways, knocking on the door of the church in search of a piece of bread (he hit the wrong day, and in general, mercy does not teach anything good - hears Guthrie from the priest) or abandoning the girl who begins to love, because hungerpushes to the further road.It was all survived by one of the largest American bards who traveled the United States, and whenever he moved, he listened.Ordinary citizens told him about their problems, and he turned these stories into the protest of the song.

Guthri's songs were shaped by creators such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen.The autobiography of the Father of the American folk has just been published by the Czarne Publishing House, translated byTomasz S..Twigs.

Foto: Wydawnictwo CzarneWoody Guthrie — "To jest wasz kraj, to jest mój kraj"

"This is your country, this is my country" is not a story for a reader about weak nerves.Perhaps some folk is associated with idyllic stories about exciting travel by train or longing for the green plains of the family land.None of these things.Guthrie in his texts returns to the worst moments of the earthly journey, starting from days, when as a lonely toddler he looked at the railway trains departing from Oklahoma, until he sits on a freight train and the rain cool.Interestingly, although he speaks openly about the pain that becomes the participation of both his and other lower -class Americans, he never gives the feeling that he is furious with his fate or that he blames someone about him.This is how it is and you have to arrange something around it.

It's hard not to get the impression that many people with a different attitude to life would have given up in his place a long time ago.Guthrie, as a few -year -old boy, observes the gradual sliding of his mother in the disease, and let us remind you that at that time you could not count on good medical care (Woody was born in 1912.);Huntington's disease, which the woman suffered, was then recognized as dementia and degeneration of the nervous system.When Woody was a teenager, his mother was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where she died.He did not know for years that he had inherited his illness from her.That's not all - as a child Guthrie survived the death of his older sister Clary, who died in a house fire."This is your country, this is my country," there is a shocking description of this event and the moment of farewell to his beloved sister by seven -year -old Guthri.The boy has the feeling that nothing good can become his participation: later the father is burned in the fire, and the mother's brother, who offered the family to raise his misery, dies in an accident.

This Land is Your Land

It is true that Guthrie, even as a few -year -old, does not break down and continues to go through life, carrying the burden of these experiences on his back;He will use them, arranging songs about poverty, exclusion, slow dying of cities arising around oil deposits or large dust storms that led to the defeat and hunger of thousands of families.He could talk about it because he survived it all himself.At the same time, despite the fact that he experienced extreme cruelty and disgusting (I am still thinking, I come back to a terrible fragment about the death of kittens, which was almost impossible for me), he can still appreciate the beauty of the country after which he moves and the people he meets.This reflects the language used in "This is your country, this is my country", interspersed with dialect and poetic descriptions, full syntactic errors and unobvious humor - thanks to the translation ofTomasz S.Twigs, umysł folkowego giganta ukazuje się polskiemu czytelnikowi w całej swojej wielowątkowej okazałości.

Foto: Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images / Getty ImagesNora Guthrie, córka Woody'ego, opiekuje się spuścizną po ojcu (2000)

Although we will find a simple praise of life in Guthri's songs, there was also in his work and socio-political commitment.This can be seen especially in his songs from the 1940s.when the United States got involved in World War II.Guthrie performed with a characteristic guitar, on which he placed the inscription: "This machine kills fascists!".He supported the fight for human rights and democracy, he did not agree to racial segregation - which may seem quite ironic in the context of the fact that Guthri's father, Charles, was most likely in Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization fighting to maintain "white suppression".Woody Guthrie wrote three songs about the event in which his father was to take part - it is about lyrics on the two African Americans in the hometown of Guthriech, i.e. Omekah in Oklahom.

Guthri, however, happened to go crazy in equality aspirations and not very well understand the complexity of some problems, which caught him in trouble.As Will Kaufman reminds in the article "Woody Guthrie's» Union War «", in 1939.In the progressive station broadcasting from Los Angeles, KFVD, Guthrie sang a song in which the verse sounded: "Stalin appeared, broke the Polish band and gave it to farmers".The idea that the USSR invasion of Poland brought freedom to Polish farmers, was so ridiculous that the head of KFVD, a well -known anti -Stalinist J.Frank Burke, SR., thanked Guthri for his cooperation.

Foto: Library of Congress/Getty Images / Getty ImagesWoody Guthrie z gitarą, na której widnieje napis: "Ta maszyna zabija faszystów!" (1943)

Woody Guthrie. Kim był?

Guthrie hit the point when he described what he saw - and he had the opportunity to look closely at the states, not Europe.By traveling the country from the ocean to the ocean, he saw that the country was contaminated with injustice, which he gave in the autobiography.The desire for equality for all people sounds not only in "this is your country...", but also in one of the most popular works of Guthri, from which the book takes his title.The song "This Land Is Your Land" (Pol."This is your country") was the answer to the patriotic recording of Irving Berlin "God Bless America" (Pol."God, bless America"), which, according to Guthri, was not very realistic.He brought American history from the heights of pathos to the daily struggle with the problems that everyone experienced.After all, such tiny woods who were burning family houses, and the mothers gave a piece of bread, because they had nothing else, there were hundreds, thousands.There was also a lot of larger ones - they clung to freight trains rushing away from violence, which was waiting in a family home or on the street.They often died, crushed by machinery elements, or slammed in the wagons to which they got illegally, and then they could not open.

Guthrie wrote*.

The song "This Land Is Your Land" was sung by Jennifer Lopez during the ceremony inaugurating the presidency of Joe Biden.For many, it was an indicator of a return in American politics - the Latin American superstar sings about the openness of the country that has not been so divided from the time of the Civil War since the Civil War.

Like quite a lot of folk singers who were still on the way, Guthrie tried to start a family several times.He married three times and was the father of the eight children.Unfortunately, on the way to his happiness and peace, there was often a disease that Woody inherited from his mother.Of his three children with his first wife, Mary Jennings, two daughters also inherited Huntington's chorea and both died as 41-year-olds.The third son died as a 23-year-old in an accident while traveling.With his second wife, Marjorie Greenblatt Mazia, he had four children.Cathy Ann died as a four -year -old in a fire.ARLO DAVY Guthrie, Joady Ben and Nora are still alive.Arlo, like a father, is a folk singer;Some people think he made an even greater career than Woody.Nora deals with the legacy of her father.

Foto: Michael Putland/Getty Images / Getty ImagesArlo Guthrie (1972)

Woody's third wife was Anneke van Kirk.They had one daughter - their relationships were, to put it mildly, tense.Woody began to get sick, he was unable to help at home.Violence began between the spouses, and Lorina separated from her parents who gave her to adoption.The girl died in a car accident when she was several years old.

Woody Guthrie withdrew from the stage when Huntington's disease caused him more and more paresis and lack of control over his own body.Although he stopped appearing in public space and could not play anymore, he was not forgotten.One of his biggest fans, Bob Dylan, remembered him.When he found out where Guthrie was in, he found him and visited him regularly.

Woody Guthrie died on October 3, 1967., he was 55 years old.After his death, he was discovered again, M.in.Thanks to Dylan, Marjorie's ex -wife or son of Arlo.Woody Guthrie is considered not only a giant folk, but also one of the most outstanding American writers, capable of capturing the essence of the country in which they live.

* cyt.after: Woody Guthrie, "This is your country, this is my country", crowd.Tomasz S.Gałązka, Czarne 2021 Publishing House