Woody Guthrie  

Woody Guthrie, The Gentle Father of Folk Music

 
In poetry, the tone of voice, they say, is the transmitter of meaning: how something is said. 'Bound for Glory' is in prose but as one reads it, one can hear the tone of a particular accent that emanates from middle America. The voice is of course that of its author, Woody Guthrie. We know this voice through his songs, how he sang them and sometimes spoke them. His narrative style matched the way he spoke and the book, a story of his growing up, is written in that voice. Sometimes he even put in phonetic spelling to help the readers hear it.

'Bound for Glory' is about a man who is on the run but who is also in search of meaning. He experiences the social disintegration in the thirties directly as the disintegration of his own family. He remarks on the John Ford film of the novel 'Grapes of Wrath' as "a movie where the stars are you and me". The parallels in the two stories are not just coincidental. He must have identified with Tom Joad whose moral resolve strengthens fervently in the face of hardship and injustice.

'Bound for Glory' is written like a travelogue but unlike the youths of today who go on purpose 'seeking' adventure, Woody Guthrie is forced into it by circumstances quite beyond his control. He accompanies others who are in the same condition. Life has set them apart to wander in search of the means of survival but unlike the nomads of old, they are not a collective. They are individuals thrown together by a sudden, seemingly accidental, advent of poverty. They take illegal train rides on cargo carriages. The romance of it comes only in retrospect. The dangers are real and many don't finish the journey.

Out of this grim reality emerges Woody Guthrie, the guitar playing singer and songwriter, certainly not the first of his kind but he invents something new. He composes songs as a way of observing the moral textures of a difficult life. In some of his songs the words are just plainly spoken. His 'talking blues' predates rap. Poetry is the greater part of the music. Because of their poignancy, these songs are often interpreted as having a political purpose. This may be implicit but Woody Guthrie was never involved wholeheartedly in activism (echoed later by Bob Dylan in his reluctance to join fully the anti-war movement, unlike say, Joan Baez). It is in the artistic spirit to arouse but not necessarily to agitate. The purpose of the songs is musical, not political. Similarly, later songwriters took folk music into the deep recesses of inner life without ever claiming to be psychoanalysts.

Looking at photographs of him, one finds a benign presence. He was never wealthy and his musical career appears to have been rather haphazard. He hovered around fame but his inclinations prevented him from marketing his talents more effectively. Nevertheless he remained the creative focal point around whom multitudes of American folk musicians gathered for inspiration.

I believe that for those of us with an impulse to play the guitar and sing for people, his legacy is like that of a father, someone to model on; not so much to imitate but to find the necessary motivations that can only come from authenticity.

Rome, 1 3 2008