Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthriewas an American singer-songwriter and musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional, and children's songs, along with ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This machine kills fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land". Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Hunter, Harry Chapin, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth14 July 1912
CityOkemah, OK
CountryUnited States of America
You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live.
I have decided long ago that my songs and ballads would not get the hugs and kisses of the capitalistic experts.
The world is filled with people who are no longer needed. And who try to make slaves of all of us. And they have their music and we have ours. Theirs, the wasted songs of a superstitious nightmare. And without their music and ideological miscarriages to compare our songs of freedom to, we'd not have any opposite to compare music with --- and like the drifting wind, hitting against no obstacle, we'd never know its speed, its power....
A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.
You can't write a good song about a whorehouse unless you've been in one.
My eyes has been my camera taking pictures of the world and my songs has been my messages that I tried to scatter across the back sides and along the steps of the fire escapes and on the window sills and through the dark halls...
A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.
One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!
I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that.
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.
Was a great high wall there that tried to stop me, A sign was painted said: "Private Property", But on the back side, it didn't say nothing, That side was made for you and me
I got started in Oklahoma. That's where I was born. Population down there is one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third white people.
Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen
This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me.