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CRICKETS CHIRRUP | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
GUITAR AND HARMONICA PLAY | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
When he went to the hospital the first time, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
and my mom went to visit him... | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
a big German doctor, psychologist type said, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
"Excuse me, Mrs Guthrie, your husband has delusions of grandeur." | 0:02:21 | 0:02:26 | |
He says he's written a book. Ha-ha-ha. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
He says he's a singer. Ha-ha-ha. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
And my mom says, "No, he's really done all these things." | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
And the guy couldn't believe it - | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
thought he had a real case and... | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
..he didn't. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
And as surprising as it was to the doctor, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
the world finds it surprising... | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
..that he could be himself. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
That he could be the legend he'd created. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
-RECORDING: -Woody Guthrie... | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
..I guess about 30-years-old from the looks of him, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
but he's seen more in those 30 years than most men... | 0:03:03 | 0:03:09 | |
see before they're 70. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
He's gone into the world, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
and he's looked at the faces of hungry men and women. He's been in hobo towns. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
He's performed on picket lines. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
He's sung his way through every bar and saloon between Oklahoma and California. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:26 | |
Listen to that red-ball roll. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:27 | |
Woody Guthrie was born into a family made rich by the Oklahoma oil boom. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
But by the time he was eight, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:35 | |
his mother was in an insane asylum and his father had lost every penny he had. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:40 | |
His personal life was a catalogue of tragedy and disease. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
Yet he had a vision that inspired two generations of Americans. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
The dustiest of the Dust Bowlers, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
Guthrie made his own life into a myth. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
He appointed himself spokesman for the poor and oppressed | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
and through his songs, turned their life into his own. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
-INTERVIEWER: -Woody, how long is it ago that you were born in Okemah? | 0:04:04 | 0:04:10 | |
28 years. You wouldn't guess it. I was born there July 14th, 1912. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:17 | |
All up and down the whole country. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
They got oil. They got some pretty nice oilfields around Okemah there. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
-Did any of the oil come in your family? -No. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
No. We got the grease! WOODY LAUGHS | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
Oh, he was just an ordinary kid. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
You couldn't tell... | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
I never did hear him sing. He used to... | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
We left there before he got...before he started on the road to singing. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
What was that song he made popular? | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
This Is My Land, Is Your Land or something like that. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
HE PLAYS HARMONICA | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
WOODY: The people down where I come from, they're lonesome for a job. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
Lonesome for...good times, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
pretty gals - wine, women and song. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
You know, down and out, | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
and disgusted and busted and can't be trusted. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
Why, it gives you a lonesome feeling... | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
We first discovered, Woody and I, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
that we could do a harmonica duet. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
We didn't play the fiddle and the banjo very good, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
but we could play the harmonica a little bit. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
And I played quite a while with Woody before I discovered he played a harmonica left-handed, | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
if you can believe that. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
Instead of the bass notes down here on the left, | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
he turned it over and maybe that helped him make some of those notes. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
You get a lot of low blues notes when you're playing... | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
train pieces. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
-HE SPITS -Sorry. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
I learned how to play a French harp off a boy that shines shoes. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
I was passing a barber's shop one day, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
when I was about 15 or 16-years-old, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
and there was a big bare-footed boy laying in there... | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
..and had his feet turned up towards me... | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
One more time. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:45 | |
One more time. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
He was a-playing the er... | 0:06:47 | 0:06:48 | |
Railroad Blues. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
"Boy," I said, "that's undoubtedly the lonesomest..." | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
"..piece of music that I ever run onto in my life. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
"Where in the world did you learn it?" | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
"Oh," he said, "I just..." | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
"..lay and listen to the railroad whistle | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
"and whatever it say, I say it too." | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
TRAIN HORN BLARES | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
HE PLAYS HARMONICA RHYTHMICALLY | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
'This is March 22nd, 1940 and we're continuing with | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
'Mr Woody Guthrie's records of Texas, Oklahoma...and California.' | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
Guthrie's account of his own life was record by the great folklorist Alan Lomax. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
Woody was small, | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
a combative, aggressive, little guy | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
with a great wit | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
and you could never get him in the corner | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
cos he could always fight his way out with his tongue. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
If you listen to his consonants when he sings. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
He will sing a D after a long held vowel | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
and he'll hit it like a boxer hits a bag. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
His enunciation is superb. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
Who gave him that idea, I don't know. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
So you understand every single syllable that he sings, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:56 | |
which is more than you can say for the people who come after him. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
Only two fragments of film survive of Guthrie performing. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
One of them, lost in the archives for 40 years, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
has only just come to light. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:08 | |
# But the rustlers broke on us | 0:09:11 | 0:09:17 | |
# In the dead hours of night | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
# She rose from her blanket | 0:09:21 | 0:09:27 | |
# A battle to fight | 0:09:27 | 0:09:32 | |
# She rose from her blanket | 0:09:34 | 0:09:40 | |
# With a gun in each hand | 0:09:40 | 0:09:45 | |
# Said, "Come all of, you cowboys | 0:09:45 | 0:09:51 | |
# "Fight for your land." # | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
I wasn't in the... | 0:09:59 | 0:10:00 | |
class that John Steinbeck called the Okies, cos my dad... | 0:10:00 | 0:10:05 | |
to start with, was worth about 35 or 40,000 | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
and he had everything hunky-dory. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
Then he started having a little bad luck. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
In fact, our whole family had a little bit of it. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
I don't know whether it's... | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
..worth talking about or not. I never do talk it much, but then... | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
all of my brothers and sisters. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:27 | |
I got another sister and two brothers and... | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
..they all felt pretty good until all these things happened | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
and found theirselves scattered. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
All us kids had to scatter out and be adopted by different families. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
I am standing in what was the Woody Guthrie and my home place. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:47 | |
I don't know. It's kind of hard to describe. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
The only thing that I learned to accept was... | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
..Papa's gone, Momma's gone, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
Woody's gone, Clara's gone, Roy's gone. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
Why should the house not be gone? | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
MAN PLAYS HARMONICA | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
And this six-room house burned down, that I told you about. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
Right after that... | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
..my 14-year-old sister... | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
..either... | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
set herself a-fire or caused a fire accidentally, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
there's two different stories got out about it... | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
Anyway, she caught a-fire while she was doing some ironing that afternoon | 0:11:38 | 0:11:44 | |
on the old kerosene stove. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
Run around the house about twice, before anyone could catch her. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
The next day she died. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
WOODY CLEARS HIS THROAT And my mother... | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
That was a little bit too much... for her... | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
nerves... | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
..or something. I don't know exactly how it was. But anyway, my mother... | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
died in the insane asylum at Norman, Oklahoma. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
She died of Huntington's chorea, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
a hereditary nervous disease that was to strike Guthrie himself, 20 years later. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
I feel like that Momma's actions were Huntington's then... | 0:12:18 | 0:12:24 | |
was the reason that she forced Clara to stay home from school | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
because she was not thinking rationally. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
And she was more or less punishing Clara. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
Clara said, "If you make me stay home from school, I'll kill myself." | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
And she did. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:36 | |
The meantime, someone saw my dad downtown and he said, | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
"Charlie, there's a fire and I think it's at your house." | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
He lived close enough. He just started running. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
He ran all the way to the house, and when he got there Clara was standing in the front yard | 0:12:46 | 0:12:51 | |
and her clothes were all burned off her and Papa said her skin was hanging in big sheets, | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
just hanging all over. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
And he couldn't touch her. She was burned so bad. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
But he fell down on the ground in front of her and just started... | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
just went to pieces. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:05 | |
She says, "Papa, don't cry. I'm not hurt." | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
And she didn't live through the night. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
Then about that same time... | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
..my father... | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
..mysteriously, for some reason or other, caught a-fire. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
There's a lot of people say he set himself a-fire, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
others say... that he caught a-fire accidentally. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
I always will think that he done it on purpose. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
He told me that he was working on a car | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
and he got gasoline all over him, | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
and when he got out from under the car and stood up, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
he lit a cigarette and it exploded. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
Had that happened like Papa said it would, | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
it would've burned him here real bad. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
Here. Papa didn't have any scars anywhere, except right here. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:53 | |
So that tells me | 0:13:53 | 0:13:54 | |
that she did pour the stuff and ignite it while he was lying down. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:59 | |
He was burned lying down. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
And he would never admit it, cos he'd never say anything against our mother. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:07 | |
Never. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:08 | |
And I think that's nice. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
UPBEAT COUNTRY TUNE | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
In 1936, Guthrie joined the Pampa Junior Chamber Of Commerce Band. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
He was its leading light. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
If I had never spoken to this little guy in the 10th grade, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
and asked him to draw a picture of a cowboy on a bucking horse, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:36 | |
I wouldn't have been out here polishing the windows this morning. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
Another member of the band was his future brother-in-law, Matt Jennings. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
He was a regular clown. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:46 | |
He would play... | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
Sometimes he would take hatpins. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
We don't even see hatpins any more. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
And Jeff or somebody would be playing the violin | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
and he would beat on the strings with them. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
So you get a secondary effect there. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
Besides the bow that's striking the strings, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
you get another... spook in the background there. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
I had very long blonde hair... | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
natural blonde hair. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
And the remark he put in one of his books was | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
that when he saw me walking down the street, before he met me, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
that he said he was going to marry me. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
Now that was kids' stuff. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
They got married in a little Catholic church there, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
in Pampa, Texas. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:30 | |
I don't know if that was the first time Woody went to church or not. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
-Pretty bad haircut. -THEY LAUGH | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
He told Matt that his mother was in the insane asylum. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:57 | |
He never did tell me that. | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
He never did. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
And of course, they did not know what was wrong for many years. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
Not until Woody was sick. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
# She rose from her blanket | 0:16:06 | 0:16:12 | |
# A battle to fight... # | 0:16:12 | 0:16:18 | |
I think the first time that he ever mentioned his mom, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
we'd had a very lively night and before we went to sleep, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
he started to talk about his mom. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
First time. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
# "..all of, you cowboys | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
# "Fight for your land..." # | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
He said, "She died last week. I had a letter from Oklahoma and my mother's dead." | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
And that got my attention pretty good. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
And, eh... | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
And he went on to tell how he'd visited this insane asylum | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
before he left Oklahoma. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
And he was there the longest time. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
And she couldn't recognise him. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
But I believe just before he left, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
that she called him over to the bed and said, "You're Woodrow." | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
That was a pretty bad afternoon for the little guy, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
he was maybe nine years old or so. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
But he told me that Huntington's Disease could come from | 0:17:12 | 0:17:18 | |
father to daughter or mother to son. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
That's the only way it could be transmitted so it made him | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
some sort of a candidate - about a 50-50 chance that he would get it. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
But, erm... | 0:17:29 | 0:17:30 | |
We were, like, 19 years old, I guess. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
There was no way in the world anything could go wrong for us. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
You never know. That's the way it is. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
Erm... | 0:17:41 | 0:17:42 | |
Huh. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
# This dusty old dust is a-blowin' me home | 0:18:05 | 0:18:10 | |
# I've got to be rollin' along... # | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
WOODY: Some of the worst dust storms... | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
..in the history of the whole world, I guess, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
broke loose - that was the big middle of the Dust Bowl. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:29 | |
# I'll sing this song But I'll sing it again | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
# Of the place that I lived on the West Texas plains | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
# In the city of Pampa The county of Gray | 0:18:41 | 0:18:46 | |
# Here's what all of the people there say | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
# This dusty old dust is a-blowin' me home | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
# I've got to be driftin' along... # | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
The first song that he ever wrote | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
that was played all over the country was, So Long, It's Been Good To Know You | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
and this was the Dust Bowl ballad about how bad the Dust Bowl was. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
The dust was blowin' so bad | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
that the preacher had called them all in to repent of their sins, you know, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
the world was comin' to an end and all that. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
And he said the dust was so black that the preacher couldn't read his text. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:35 | |
So he folded his specs and took up a collection! | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
And said, "So long, it's good to know you," you know! | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
Characters like that that make up lines like that, | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
you get a chuckle out of them. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
# The church houses were jammed And packed | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
# People was sittin' From front to the back | 0:19:53 | 0:19:58 | |
# It was so dusty The preacher couldn't read his text | 0:19:58 | 0:20:04 | |
# So he folded his specs And he took up collections | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
# So long, it's been good to know ya | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
# This dusty old dust is a-rollin' me home | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
# I've got to be driftin' along. # | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
In 1936, without compunction, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
Guthrie left his young wife and family | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
and embarked on 25 years of rambling. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
He joined the migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
and travelled west to California. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
He was never to settle again. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
The Carter family, at that time, were broadcasting from Del Rio, Mexico. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:47 | |
Now, the Carter family had developed a new guitar style, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
which was based on the banjo and had rhythmic action in both hands. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:58 | |
Hammering on, pulling off, sliding, mixed with... | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
..contrastive runs from the thumb and then playing the melody at the same time. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:09 | |
It was a... | 0:21:09 | 0:21:10 | |
It sounds simple, but it takes a long time to learn | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
and Woody had been working on the Carter Family lick | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
for years and years. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
And he put that together | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
with the harmonica style that he learned from a black man. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
And with a kind of a frailing technique with his right hand | 0:21:23 | 0:21:29 | |
so that his guitar buzzes and rumbles | 0:21:29 | 0:21:34 | |
and bounces and jumps and skitters | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
and sings all at the same time. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
It's a unique sound that Woody has. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
If you go back, if you listen to it, it's really like, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
I dunno, it's like being in a big truck | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
and hearing a song sung at the same time | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
because Woody was riding those trucks. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
And the sound of trucks - and he was riding the trains. | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
So you hear the pulse of the drive wheel and the whistle of the locomotive | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
and all the racket of the wheels, the regular racket of the wheels. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:08 | |
It's all going on with that guitar style of Woody's. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
# I ain't got no home I'm just a-ramblin' round | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
# I work when I can get it I go from town to town | 0:22:39 | 0:22:45 | |
# Can't feel a fool No matter where I go | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
# Cos I ain't got no home In this world anymore. # | 0:22:50 | 0:22:56 | |
WOODY: After I was on the highway to California, | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
I made about three trips back to Texas | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
and back to Oklahoma and back to California again by freight train. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
And every time, I saw... | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
..100s and 100s and 100s and 1,000s of families | 0:23:11 | 0:23:15 | |
of people living around under railroad bridges. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:20 | |
# I'm stranded on that road That goes from sea to sea | 0:23:20 | 0:23:25 | |
# A hundred thousand others Are stranded same as me | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
# A hundred thousand, yes A hundred thousand more | 0:23:31 | 0:23:36 | |
# And I ain't got no home In this world anymore. # | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
-INTERVIEWER: -Did they welcome you | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
with bands and banners and everything, or what? | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
WOODY: No, they didn't greet us with bands or nothin', | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
they asked us questions when we come across the line. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
They tried to turn a lot of us back - the hobos that didn't have any money. We knew. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:06 | |
We remembered the old tractor sitting back down there, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
covered up with dust, the cows standing up on top of the barn | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
and looking out across that dead sea of dust. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
And we said, "No, Mr!" | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
# Now listen here, friends I wanna tell you | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
# About a brand new dance That you gotta learn to do | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
# Called the Oakie Boogie | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
# You do it Oakie-style | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
# Now the mean old Oakie Boogie Is bound to drive you wild | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
# When you get started It's hard to stop | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
# If you don't look out You're gonna blow your top | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
# When you do the Oakie Boogie And do it Oakie-style | 0:24:39 | 0:24:43 | |
# Well, the mean old Oakie Boogie Is sure to drive you wild. # | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
Guthrie joined his cousin, Jack, on a radio station in Los Angeles. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
Thanks a lot, Jack, sure glad you dropped around. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
The nostalgic sounds of Oklahoma were popular among the newly-arrived migrants. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
But by this time, Guthrie had developed a style of his own, | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
turning one man's experience | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
into the story of all the Dust Bowl refugees. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
# Back in 1927 | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
# I had a little farm And I called it Heaven | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
# Prices up and the rain come down | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
# And I hauled my crops all into town | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
# I got the money | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
# Bought clothes and groceries | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
# Fed the kids | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
# Took it easy | 0:25:29 | 0:25:30 | |
# But the rain it quit And the wind got high | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
# And the black old dust storms Filled the sky | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
# And I swapped my farm For a Ford machine | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
# And I filled it full Of this gas-o-line | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
# And started | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
# Ro-lling on and on... | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
# Driftin' to California | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
# Way up yonder on a mountain road | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
# I had a hot motor and a heavy load | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
# I was going pretty fast I wasn't even stoppin' | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
# I's a-bouncin' up and down Like popcorn a-poppin' | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
# Had a breakdown | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
# Sort of a nervous bust-down of the, eh... | 0:26:05 | 0:26:10 | |
# Mechanism there Some kind of engine trouble | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
# Yes, away up yonder On a mountain road | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
# I wasn't feeling so very good | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
# And I give this rollin' Ford a shove | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
# And I's a-gonna coast as far as I could | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
# Commenced a-rollin' | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
# Pickin' up speed And there was a hairpin turn | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
# And I couldn't make it | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
# Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
# The fiddles and the guitars Really flew | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
# That Ford took off Like a flying squirrel | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
# And it flew halfway Around the world | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
# Scattered wives and children All over the side of that mountain | 0:26:50 | 0:26:54 | |
# We got to old Los Angeles broke | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
# So dad-gum hungry We thought we'd choke | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
# And I bummed up a spud or two And my wife cooked up a tater stew | 0:27:10 | 0:27:15 | |
# Fed the kids a big bite of it | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
# But that was mighty thin stew | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
# So dad-gum thin you could near Read a magazine through it | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
# Hey, if it had been Just a little bit thinner | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
# I've always believed | 0:27:32 | 0:27:34 | |
# If that stew had been Just a little bit thinner | 0:27:34 | 0:27:38 | |
# Some of our senators Could have seen through it. # | 0:27:38 | 0:27:43 | |
The migrants that Guthrie travelled with | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
had not wanted to leave their homes. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:53 | |
They'd left because their land had literally turned to dust. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
They were the first Americans | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
to spectacularly suffer a major disaster | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
in public vision | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
and gradually, the country began to acquire its conscience | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
by regarding the fate of the Okies and the Arkies. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:18 | |
Steinbeck, of course, did a great job and other writers, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
but I think Woody did a job that was just as important as theirs | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
and has lasted, really, longer. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
Well, the native Californian sons and daughters, I'll admit, | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
had a lot to be proud of. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:37 | |
They had built up, in California... | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
..a wonderful empire. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Then they hadn't built up quite a wonderful enough empire. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:51 | |
GUNSHOTS | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
What they needed in California | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
was more and more people to pick their fruit | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
to gather in their peaches, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
to pick their select apricots, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
but at the same time, they looked down, for some reason or other, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
on the people that come in there from other states | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
to do that kind of work. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:17 | |
He was their spokesman. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
He was to tell their story. | 0:29:21 | 0:29:24 | |
He believed every word he was saying. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
He was as devoted to that | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
as any minister that feels he has a call to be a minister. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:34 | |
He considered himself a spokesman for the downtrodden | 0:29:35 | 0:29:39 | |
and the people that don't have a voice... | 0:29:39 | 0:29:41 | |
..and I think the reason he could do that | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
was because Woody had suffered in his life. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
TRAIN RATTLES | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
TRAIN WHEELS SCREECH | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
# It's a mighty hard road | 0:30:29 | 0:30:31 | |
# That my poor hand has hoed | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
# My poor feet has travelled | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
# A hot, dusty road | 0:30:38 | 0:30:43 | |
# Out of your Dust Bowl And Westward we rode | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
# And your mountains are hot | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
# Your deserts are cold | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
# California and Arizona | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
# I make all your crops | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
# Well, it's north up to Oregon | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
# To gather your hops | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
# Dig the beets from your ground | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
# Cut the grape from your vine | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
# To set on your table Your light, sparkling wine | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
# Green pastures of plenty | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
# From dry desert ground | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
# From the Grand Coulee Dam | 0:31:29 | 0:31:31 | |
# Where the waters run down | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
# Every state in this Union Us migrants has been | 0:31:34 | 0:31:39 | |
# We'll work in your fight And we'll fight till we win... # | 0:31:39 | 0:31:43 | |
Back in the '30s, used to have the coal trains, you know? | 0:31:43 | 0:31:48 | |
-You were guaranteed... -HE COUGHS | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
You were guaranteed they were going to stop. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
From one town, they're going to stop at the next town. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
But with these diesel engines, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
they're going to go 300-400 miles before they stop. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
When are you going to stop? | 0:32:07 | 0:32:08 | |
-Huh? -When are you going to stop? | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
Probably when they bury me. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
I ain't going to stop. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
I'm going to keep moving till I drop dead. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
# Well, it's always we've rambled That river and I | 0:32:22 | 0:32:26 | |
# All along your green valley I will work till I die | 0:32:27 | 0:32:33 | |
# My land, I'll defend With my life, if it be | 0:32:33 | 0:32:38 | |
# Because my pastures of plenty Must always be free. # | 0:32:38 | 0:32:43 | |
TRAIN'S WHISTLE TOOTS | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
PIANO PLAYS | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
ALL: # This land is your land This land is my land | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
# From California To New York Island | 0:32:58 | 0:33:03 | |
# From the redwood forests | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
# To the Gulf Stream waters | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
# This land was made for you and me... # | 0:33:08 | 0:33:12 | |
Guthrie's original title for This Land Is Your Land | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
was God Blessed America. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
It was an answer to the Irvine Berlin anthem, which he hated, | 0:33:17 | 0:33:21 | |
and it expressed his own fierce brand of patriotism. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
# ..A voice was chanting | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
# This land was made for you and me. # | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
Ah! I'm out again! | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
It became his most famous song and, ironically, | 0:33:41 | 0:33:45 | |
the second national anthem, though not with all the original verses. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
It's sharp... | 0:33:48 | 0:33:49 | |
# In the squares of the city By the shadow of the steeple | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
# By the relief office I saw my people | 0:33:56 | 0:34:01 | |
# As they stood there hungry I stood there whistling... # | 0:34:01 | 0:34:06 | |
What did he whistle? | 0:34:06 | 0:34:07 | |
# This land was made For you and me | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
# Was a great high wall there | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
# Trying to stop me | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
# Was a great big sign there | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
# Said, private property | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
# But on the other side It didn't say nothing | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
# That side was made for you and me | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
# This land is your land | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
# This land is my land... # | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
Do you know, what gives me courage, is to think that this song | 0:34:35 | 0:34:40 | |
was never on the top 40, it was never on the top of the hit parade, | 0:34:40 | 0:34:45 | |
but hundreds of millions of people know the song now. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:49 | |
TRAIN BLOWS WHISTLE | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
GUITAR AND HARMONICA PLAY | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
Woody Guthrie is... | 0:35:34 | 0:35:36 | |
I guess about 30 years old from the looks of him, | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
but...he's seen more in those 30 years | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
than most men... | 0:35:43 | 0:35:44 | |
..see before they're 70. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
He's looked at the faces of hungry men and women. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
He's been in hobo towns. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:53 | |
He's performed on picket lines. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:56 | |
He's sung his way through every bar and saloon between Oklahoma and California. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
And listen to that red-ball roll. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:02 | |
I met him at a benefit and Woody had just hit town from California | 0:36:07 | 0:36:13 | |
and someone invited him to sing and he stopped the show. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
This little dusty-headed man. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
Sometimes he couldn't finish his concerts in those days | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
because he would start talking, like Will Rogers, | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
who he adored, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
and would keep on telling jokes for maybe an hour and a half, | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
maybe sing one song at the end. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:34 | |
Well, that sophisticated New York audience | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
had never heard anything like him. Nor had I. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
In New York, Guthrie was adopted by a group of left-wing intellectuals | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
who believed that folk music was the true voice of the people. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:48 | |
In Guthrie, they found not only a man of the people | 0:36:48 | 0:36:51 | |
but one whose views were even more left-wing than their own. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
He became the champion of a new musical movement. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
Here we were, all trying to look like country, you know? | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
In our blue jeans and our work shirts. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
Trying desperately to look like people from the country, so we had a right to sing these songs, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:08 | |
and here comes this guy from Oklahoma, the real thing, you know? | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
Erm, when I look back now, I wonder what Woody saw when he saw us all. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:18 | |
Nobody I knew literally slept in their clothes all the time. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
Erm... | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
You really were afraid to... | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
I mean, nobody in their right mind would pat him on the head, | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
because he had... So much about Woody was proto. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
He had proto-Afro hair-dos. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:35 | |
He had very wiry hair, it went out like this, | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
and you didn't dare touch it because you didn't know what would fly out. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
Rats, mice, bats, birds? Dead birds? | 0:37:41 | 0:37:43 | |
He was generally filthy. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:47 | |
# John Henry when he was a baby | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
# Sittin' down on his mammy's knee | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
# Picked up a hammer in his little right hand | 0:37:54 | 0:37:58 | |
# That's gonna be the death of me | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
# That hammer'll be the death of me | 0:38:02 | 0:38:06 | |
-# Hammer'll be the death of me -Oh, Lord | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
# Hammer'll be the death of me | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
# Well, the captain, He said to John Henry | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
# I'm gonna bring My steam drill around | 0:38:16 | 0:38:19 | |
# I'm gonna bring my steam drill Out on this job | 0:38:19 | 0:38:24 | |
# Whup that steel on down | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
# And I'm gonna whup That steel on down... # | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
You had a feeling of a sense of history when you were round him. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
Cos we were both active Communists | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
and Communists have a strong sense of history too. | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
He and I sang for the CIO Unions, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
many of which had Communist organisers, back in 19... | 0:39:04 | 0:39:09 | |
The early '40s. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:12 | |
When he met with the Communist Party he said, | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
"There's guys doing something about it. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
"I knew Jesus was talking about it | 0:39:17 | 0:39:19 | |
"but these guys are doing something!" | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
And now, friends, this meeting is called on the office of the American Workers Party, | 0:39:21 | 0:39:25 | |
an organisation dedicated to the organising of the working class of America | 0:39:25 | 0:39:30 | |
and the overthrow of Capitalism. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:32 | |
An organisation that... | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
# Jesus Christ was a man That travelled through the land | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
# Hard-working man and brave | 0:39:38 | 0:39:42 | |
# He said to the rich, "Give your goods to the poor" | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
# So they laid Jesus Christ In his grave | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
# This song was written In New York City | 0:39:50 | 0:39:55 | |
# Of rich men, preachers and slaves | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
# If Jesus was to preach Like he preached in Galilee | 0:40:01 | 0:40:05 | |
# They would lay Jesus Christ In his grave... # | 0:40:05 | 0:40:10 | |
The point is he believed the image. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
I guess he believed his image, as much as Jesus believed his. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
Erm... You could never have convinced Jesus that he was just another, erm... | 0:40:18 | 0:40:23 | |
..crack-pot Jewish radical, during the Roman Empire. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
Guthrie's sense of his own destiny was confirmed | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
when he was invited to Oregon | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
to write a cycle of songs in praise of the Grand Coulee Dam. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
This was to be the most productive month of his life. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
In almost as many days, he wrote 26 songs, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
all hymns to the American working man. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:47 | |
# I've been a-having Some hard travelling | 0:40:47 | 0:40:50 | |
# I thought you know'd | 0:40:50 | 0:40:51 | |
# I've been a-having Some hard travelling | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
# Way down the road | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
# I've been a-having Some hard travelling | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
# Hard rambling Hard gambling | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
# I've been having Some hard travelling, Lord. # | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
He was a little shrimp of a guy but he really... | 0:41:03 | 0:41:08 | |
..thought highly of the... | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
..man's way of doing things. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
# I've been working At Pittsburgh Steel | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
# I thought you know'd | 0:41:20 | 0:41:21 | |
# I've been pouring red-hot slag Way down the road | 0:41:21 | 0:41:25 | |
# I've been blasting And I've been firing | 0:41:25 | 0:41:27 | |
# I've been pouring red-hot iron | 0:41:27 | 0:41:29 | |
# And I've been having Some hard travelling, Lord. # | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
Did you like Woody? | 0:41:53 | 0:41:54 | |
No. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
Why not? | 0:42:00 | 0:42:01 | |
I found it difficult to like him. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
I found I was afraid of him. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
Erm, I was very young when I met him. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:13 | |
16, 18, 19... That time. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
And then, a little bit later. | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
Erm, I didn't understand him. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
I knew I was supposed to think he was marvellous. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
I thought his songs were... | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
They were amazing, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
but the man was frightening... | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
..to me. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:40 | |
And I was always very uncomfortable with him. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
"What the hell are singing a whorehouse ballad for? | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
"You're nothing but a virgin. You're a small-town virgin. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
"How can you sing a song like that? How can you dare sing the blues?" | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
As a matter of fact, Pete himself did the same blues for years, | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
because of that kind of onus that Woody put on to him. | 0:42:56 | 0:43:00 | |
So-and-so was "college-bred", therefore they didn't know "The People". | 0:43:01 | 0:43:05 | |
Capital T - The, capital P - People. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
Erm...which may be true, but don't rub it in. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
Oh, he'd occasionally needle me about my Eastern mannerisms. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:17 | |
Yeah, I think once I did get so mad at him, I stormed out of the house. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:22 | |
Maybe I admired him so much that I didn't care if he did insult me | 0:43:24 | 0:43:29 | |
from time to time. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
The person was revolting, to me. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
I don't know that anybody admired the person. He was offensive, he was insulting... | 0:43:36 | 0:43:41 | |
The artist was...incredible. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:46 | |
So, I think everybody put up with the shit of the personality | 0:43:46 | 0:43:53 | |
for the diamonds that came out of that mind. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:59 | |
I've tried to describe what Woody's voice did to me, just his voice, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
and it was... | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
A knife is no good as an image. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
A razor is better, | 0:44:10 | 0:44:13 | |
but a razor is too broad and has too much surface. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
A stiletto, that's sharp all the way, went right in. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
Right in, pierced you through and through and your hair stood on end. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:23 | |
It was a scream | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
or a sneer | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
of extraordinary power. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
# Mighty hard road That my poor hands have hoed | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
# My poor feet have travelled That hot, dusty road | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
# Out of your Dust Bowl | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
# And westward we roam | 0:44:54 | 0:44:56 | |
# And your deserts was hot And your mountains was cold | 0:44:56 | 0:45:02 | |
# California, Arizona I make all your crops | 0:45:14 | 0:45:18 | |
# Then it's up to Oregon To gather your hops | 0:45:19 | 0:45:24 | |
# On the edge of your city You see us and then | 0:45:24 | 0:45:29 | |
# We come with the dust And we're gone with the wind | 0:45:29 | 0:45:34 | |
# It's always we rambled That river and I | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
# All along your green valley I'll work till I die | 0:45:51 | 0:45:57 | |
# My land, I'll defend With my life, if it be | 0:45:58 | 0:46:03 | |
# Cos my pastures of plenty Must always be free. # | 0:46:04 | 0:46:11 | |
"Dig the beet from the ground And the grape from the vine | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
"To set on your table Your light, sparkling wine." | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
I mean, that's genius! | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
There's a sweep of America. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
Two classes in a short verse, | 0:46:31 | 0:46:35 | |
and that was Woody. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:36 | |
He had that kind of mind, that kind of imagination. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
Nothing daunts him. That business about, "The car couldn't make it on the hairpin curve", | 0:46:40 | 0:46:46 | |
or, "The car, we just didn't make it," | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
and the next verse is... | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
"Wives and children falling all over that mountain." | 0:46:50 | 0:46:54 | |
And even the humour of making wife plural, | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
because he knew his own sex life, was filled with wives in Brooklyn | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
and wives in Oklahoma, and wives all over... | 0:47:01 | 0:47:03 | |
And he married several of them. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
Guthrie's second wife was Marjorie Mazia, | 0:47:05 | 0:47:08 | |
a ballet dancer from New York. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:10 | |
Married only two years, with a baby daughter, he was on the move again. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
He joined the Merchant Navy with fellow folk-singer Cisco Houston | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
and a young Italian New Yorker, Jimmy Longhi. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
First time I met Woody... | 0:47:29 | 0:47:30 | |
I wouldn't be here, sitting here in my beautiful apartment, | 0:47:32 | 0:47:37 | |
overlooking the East River... | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
..if it weren't for Woody. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
Apart from the fact that he literally saved my life, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:47 | |
when we were torpedoed... | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
We were in the invasion of France, Normandy, | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
Woody was standing near the porthole, | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
Cisco was sitting in his bunk tying his shoe. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:05 | |
I was in my bunk directly above Cisco, | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
with a pillow behind my head, listening to Woody. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
And Woody's saying to me... | 0:48:11 | 0:48:13 | |
"You've never seen Jane Dudley dance the Harmonica Breakdown?" | 0:48:14 | 0:48:19 | |
"No, Woody, I never saw Jane Dudley dance the Harmonica Breakdown." | 0:48:20 | 0:48:24 | |
He said, "Well, before you die... | 0:48:24 | 0:48:27 | |
"you're going to see Jane Dudley dance the Harmonica Breakdown." | 0:48:27 | 0:48:32 | |
Now, as he's saying this, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
he is floating through the air, and I'm watching him. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:39 | |
And he hits the ceiling, the overhead. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
What happened - we were hit by an enormous mine, an explosion. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
My brain went berserk. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
Everything became slow motion. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:51 | |
Woody's lips were moving thusly, | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
and as he was saying, "You must see Jane Dudley | 0:48:54 | 0:48:57 | |
"dance the Harmonica Breakdown before you die," | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
I'm watching, and then "BANG!" I hear the noise, | 0:49:00 | 0:49:04 | |
and we all go boom, boom, the whole ship was flying up and down. | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
And I get thrown out of my bunk. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:09 | |
My bunk collapses. It skinned Cisco, it almost killed Cisco. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:14 | |
Steel bunker, I weighed 200lb, but it came down on me. | 0:49:14 | 0:49:18 | |
I get thrown to the steel deck, | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
and that's all I remember. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:23 | |
I was unconscious. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:24 | |
The ship was taking water. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:27 | |
Woody and Cisco, of course they were running out, they were up on deck, | 0:49:27 | 0:49:31 | |
you know, "Where the hell are we?" | 0:49:31 | 0:49:33 | |
Then they realise that I'm not with them. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:35 | |
Woody and Cisco came down below | 0:49:37 | 0:49:40 | |
to find me. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
They picked me up and they took me out. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:46 | |
So I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:49 | |
I never saw Woody laugh. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:04 | |
I never saw Woody smile, | 0:50:06 | 0:50:08 | |
just a flicker of a smile. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:09 | |
And I never saw Woody cry. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
Cisco tells me once Woody cried, | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
when his child, five-year-old child Cathy was burnt to death | 0:50:16 | 0:50:20 | |
in his apartment. | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
Woody was stoical, there was no reaction from Woody for three days. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:29 | |
Then we were walking on the sands of Coney Island, | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
and suddenly Woody threw himself on the sand, on his back, | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
and put his feet up in the air, | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
and scre-e-e-e-a-amed... | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
..for three, four minutes. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:45 | |
And then got up, and never mentioned it again. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:50 | |
But on that half-Indian face, | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
not half, quarter-Indian, | 0:50:53 | 0:50:54 | |
the face of his stoicism, and a calm beauty. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:59 | |
-RADIO: -Hello, children. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
This afternoon we've got in the studio Woody Guthrie, | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
who's a very well-known singer of folk songs over here. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
Though at the moment you're in the Merchant Navy, aren't you, Woody? | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
That's right. Washing dishes on a liberty ship. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
-PRESENTER LAUGHS -And during his leave, Woody has come in to make a programme for you. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:21 | |
Shall we have the first one, Woody? What was it going to be? | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
# Take me riding in the car, car Take me riding in the car, car | 0:51:26 | 0:51:30 | |
# Take you riding in my car, car I'll take you riding in my car | 0:51:30 | 0:51:34 | |
# Brrrr-brr-brr-brr-brr brr-brr Brrrr-brr-brr-brr-brr brr-brr | 0:51:34 | 0:51:38 | |
# Brr-brr-brr brr-brr-brr brr brr Brr-brr-brr-brr-brr-brr... # | 0:51:38 | 0:51:41 | |
Well, I really didn't know him then, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:45 | |
but the books have indicated the terrible tragedy... | 0:51:45 | 0:51:48 | |
..with the death of the daughter, | 0:51:49 | 0:51:51 | |
who was left in the house, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
and Woody went downstairs to get some cigarettes. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:57 | |
When he came back, the poor girl was on fire. | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
They took her to the hospital and she died soon after. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:03 | |
# Click clack Open up the door, girls | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
# Click clack Open up the door, boys | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
# Front door, back door Clickety clack | 0:52:07 | 0:52:09 | |
# Take you riding in my car | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
# Brrrr-brr-brr-brr-brr brr-brr Brrrr-brr-brr-brr-brr brr-brr | 0:52:11 | 0:52:14 | |
# Brr-brr-brr brr-brr brr brr # Brr-brr-brr-brr-brr brr... # | 0:52:14 | 0:52:18 | |
SILENCE | 0:52:18 | 0:52:19 | |
# I'm gonna zoom you home again I'm gonna zoom you home again | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
# Brr-brr, brr-brr-brrm, roll home Take you riding in my car. # | 0:52:22 | 0:52:26 | |
SILENCE | 0:52:26 | 0:52:27 | |
# I'm gonna let you blow the horn I'm gonna let you blow the horn | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
# A-oorah, a-oorah, a-oorah, oorah I'll take you riding in my car. # | 0:52:31 | 0:52:36 | |
SILENCE | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
The late '20s, when his sister died, | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
a fire in the house, a lamp kind of spilt over | 0:52:47 | 0:52:52 | |
and Woody came in and found her running around in flames. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
Then after that, I think it was the death of his mother, | 0:52:57 | 0:53:01 | |
who died, I believe, somewhere in an asylum in Oklahoma. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:05 | |
Then you have here in New York, right on this street, | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
Woody's first daughter with Marjorie, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
died in a fire. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
She was maybe five or six years old. | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
Then you have almost a litany of tragedies. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:25 | |
His son from Mary, Bill Guthrie... | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
..perhaps he was in his twenties, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
and he died in an automobile accident. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
His car got stuck in the railroad tracks and a train hit him. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:40 | |
Then after that, his daughter Gwen, who was in her late thirties, | 0:53:41 | 0:53:47 | |
got Huntington's disease and died from it. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
He had another daughter by his last marriage, | 0:53:51 | 0:53:55 | |
and she was again in her early twenties at that point, | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
and she was killed in an automobile accident in California. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:02 | |
And just last week I received a letter from Mary, | 0:54:02 | 0:54:07 | |
that Woody's and Mary's daughter... | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
..is dying from the disease. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:16 | |
I would say she's in her early forties. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
Mid-forties. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
And you have this whole litany of tragedies. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
And then of course, Woody. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:26 | |
It is a disease that totally destroys the nervous system. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:32 | |
You cannot... | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
The nervous system and mental. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
It can be both, or it can be one or the other. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
But as far as any doctor's ever told me, | 0:54:41 | 0:54:45 | |
they will tell you it is both. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
Some people are worse than others mentally, | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
but it does affect the brain also. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
It slowly deteriorates the brain. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
But you get to where you have no control over any of your muscles. | 0:54:56 | 0:55:01 | |
You can't walk, you can't talk, you can't eat, you can't swallow. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:06 | |
You're just...about a vegetable. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:11 | |
Now, this is after you've had it for quite some... | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
It can... It can take you... | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
Well, my other daughter lived ten years. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
But she started out very bad at the beginning. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
In the case of my younger daughter, she started out slowly. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
And it's been 17 years now | 0:55:30 | 0:55:33 | |
that she's had Huntington's. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:35 | |
And I know Woody was in the hospital 15 years. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:38 | |
And I absolutely refuse to think about my grandchildren. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:45 | |
By the time they would get old enough, I'm not going to be around, | 0:55:45 | 0:55:49 | |
and I feel that I've got to put that out of my head. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
I'm not going to let that get to me. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
And maybe, maybe they'll have something, but I wouldn't bet on it. | 0:55:56 | 0:56:01 | |
See, some people see it as some kind of doom and gloom. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
I don't see it that way. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:07 | |
I see it as just another...um... | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
..thing that you have to learn, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
and you have to cope with, and you have to get over. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
And the thing you have to get over is the idea that you are... | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
you know, just some kind of piece of meat walking around | 0:56:21 | 0:56:25 | |
that, you know, increases in volume and then turns to dust. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:30 | |
If that's all you think you are, | 0:56:30 | 0:56:33 | |
you're not going to have the opportunities | 0:56:33 | 0:56:36 | |
to move ahead philosophically, | 0:56:36 | 0:56:40 | |
or spiritually. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:41 | |
When I had a chance to go through some of his work, | 0:56:45 | 0:56:49 | |
I found out a little bit more with what he was struggling with, | 0:56:49 | 0:56:52 | |
struggling with questions like, "Why me? How come I got sick? | 0:56:52 | 0:56:57 | |
"Is God going to help me? | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
"Is there any help for me? | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
"Can man help me? | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
"How am I going to get out of this mess? Is there an out?" | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
And I think my dad's journey was a spiritual journey. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:10 | |
It was a mystical journey, his whole life. | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
# I've been havin' Some hard travellin' | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
# Way down the road | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
# I've been havin' Some hard travellin' | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
# Hard ramblin', hard gamblin' | 0:57:20 | 0:57:22 | |
# I've been havin' Some hard travellin', lord... # | 0:57:22 | 0:57:26 | |
This song was put together back in the 1930s, | 0:57:26 | 0:57:30 | |
by a fella some of you may know. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
His name was Woody Guthrie. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:34 | |
Woody has been in a hospital now for ten years, | 0:57:36 | 0:57:38 | |
probably won't write another song. | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
But he was one of the greatest balladmakers I guess I'll ever know. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:47 | |
Wrote songs about the Dust Bowl, about the crops of California, | 0:57:47 | 0:57:52 | |
wrote songs for his children. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:53 | |
A lot of people have heard his songs. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:56 | |
They're getting more well known every year. | 0:57:56 | 0:57:58 | |
But I thought maybe right now you'd be interested to perhaps see him. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:02 | |
This is him. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:04 | |
# In the dead hours of night | 0:58:04 | 0:58:09 | |
# She rose from her blanket | 0:58:09 | 0:58:14 | |
# A battle to fight | 0:58:14 | 0:58:19 | |
# She rose from her blanket | 0:58:21 | 0:58:27 | |
# With a gun in each hand | 0:58:28 | 0:58:32 | |
# Said, "Come all of, you cowboys | 0:58:32 | 0:58:38 | |
# "Fight for your land." # | 0:58:38 | 0:58:41 | |
A new generation was now claiming Guthrie as its own. | 0:58:43 | 0:58:46 | |
Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, | 0:58:46 | 0:58:48 | |
Paul Simon, Joan Baez. | 0:58:48 | 0:58:50 | |
His canonisation had begun, | 0:58:50 | 0:58:53 | |
and his very first disciple was Ramblin' Jack Elliott, | 0:58:53 | 0:58:56 | |
seen here with a bearded Guthrie in Washington Square. | 0:58:56 | 0:58:59 | |
I watched him play really well for two years - | 0:59:00 | 0:59:04 | |
'51 and '52. | 0:59:04 | 0:59:07 | |
I guess it wasn't till about 1954 | 0:59:10 | 0:59:12 | |
that he started kind of loose guitar picking into it. | 0:59:12 | 0:59:16 | |
HE PLAYS A SHORT TUNE | 0:59:16 | 0:59:18 | |
He did some things on the guitar that I still cannot do, | 0:59:19 | 0:59:24 | |
while I could hear how it sounded. | 0:59:24 | 0:59:26 | |
One of them was... | 0:59:26 | 0:59:27 | |
HE PLAYS A COMPLICATED TUNE | 0:59:27 | 0:59:29 | |
I couldn't get him to teach it to me. | 0:59:34 | 0:59:36 | |
Somehow he would let me learn something. | 0:59:36 | 0:59:39 | |
I'd say, "Hey, how'd you do that?" | 0:59:39 | 0:59:42 | |
He'd say, "Just watch it and steal it. I ain't going to show it to you. | 0:59:42 | 0:59:45 | |
"Leadbelly, let me steal from him and you can steal from me. | 0:59:45 | 0:59:48 | |
"I ain't going to show you nothin'." | 0:59:48 | 0:59:50 | |
The last few years, he couldn't really speak at all. | 0:59:52 | 0:59:55 | |
Just a blur came out of his mouth. | 0:59:55 | 0:59:57 | |
Bob Dylan visited him, but I doubt they had much of a conversation. | 1:00:00 | 1:00:03 | |
He was just one more young fellow with a guitar. | 1:00:05 | 1:00:08 | |
When Woody got sick, | 1:00:08 | 1:00:10 | |
and I used to get his letters that he was writing to me, | 1:00:10 | 1:00:13 | |
they were so ineligible. | 1:00:13 | 1:00:15 | |
I could not read them. | 1:00:15 | 1:00:17 | |
I mean illegible. That's the word I needed. | 1:00:17 | 1:00:19 | |
When I got these letters that you couldn't read his writing, | 1:00:22 | 1:00:25 | |
I would just break down | 1:00:25 | 1:00:27 | |
and just boo-hoo, I mean just boo-hoo, just go all to pieces. | 1:00:27 | 1:00:30 | |
And then, I... | 1:00:30 | 1:00:31 | |
As I got them regularly, I got where I could get through them. | 1:00:31 | 1:00:36 | |
But that was the hardest thing for me to accept. | 1:00:36 | 1:00:40 | |
And then I went to visit Woody and then I saw him, | 1:00:40 | 1:00:44 | |
and the only way I was really sure that everything was OK mentally, | 1:00:44 | 1:00:48 | |
because he always liked to tell it in the hospital, he says... | 1:00:48 | 1:00:53 | |
He says, "I'm the one that looks the craziest." | 1:00:53 | 1:00:58 | |
He says, "And I'm the only one in here with a mind." | 1:00:58 | 1:01:02 | |
And so to check that out, | 1:01:04 | 1:01:06 | |
he's sitting there, you know, like this, | 1:01:06 | 1:01:09 | |
and I knew that he would be briefed, he knew I was coming, | 1:01:09 | 1:01:13 | |
and to expect me. | 1:01:13 | 1:01:15 | |
And I said... So I knew... | 1:01:15 | 1:01:17 | |
I thought, it's easy for him to say "Do you know me?" and he'd say, "Yeah, you're Mary Jo." | 1:01:17 | 1:01:22 | |
And I said, "OK, Woody, what do you call me? | 1:01:22 | 1:01:25 | |
"What is your nickname for me, you gave me?" | 1:01:25 | 1:01:29 | |
He says, "Tinken." | 1:01:29 | 1:01:31 | |
And I knew then everything was OK. | 1:01:31 | 1:01:33 | |
# If you gather round me, children | 1:01:57 | 1:02:03 | |
# A story I will tell about Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw | 1:02:06 | 1:02:11 | |
# Oklahoma knew him well | 1:02:12 | 1:02:16 | |
# It was in the town of Shawnee | 1:02:19 | 1:02:24 | |
# A Saturday afternoon His wife beside him in his wagon | 1:02:26 | 1:02:30 | |
# And into town they rode | 1:02:33 | 1:02:36 | |
# There a deputy sheriff Approached him | 1:02:40 | 1:02:45 | |
# A manner rather rude Using vulgar words of language | 1:02:45 | 1:02:49 | |
# And his wife, she overheard | 1:02:51 | 1:02:54 | |
# Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain The deputy grabbed his gun | 1:02:56 | 1:03:01 | |
# And then the fight that followed | 1:03:01 | 1:03:04 | |
# He laid that deputy down | 1:03:06 | 1:03:09 | |
# Now there's a many A starving farmer | 1:03:29 | 1:03:33 | |
# The same old story told How this outlaw paid their mortgage | 1:03:33 | 1:03:37 | |
# And saved their little homes | 1:03:39 | 1:03:42 | |
# Others tell you of a stranger That come to beg a meal | 1:03:44 | 1:03:49 | |
# Then underneath his napkin | 1:03:49 | 1:03:52 | |
# Left a thousand dollar bill... # | 1:03:53 | 1:03:58 | |
After going through all he went through, | 1:04:14 | 1:04:18 | |
to be cut down by Huntington's chorea at the age of 40... | 1:04:18 | 1:04:22 | |
It was... | 1:04:24 | 1:04:26 | |
Dignity, can't believe it. | 1:04:26 | 1:04:28 | |
Huntington's chorea, the mind is clear. | 1:04:28 | 1:04:31 | |
It's just that the nerves and the muscles don't function. | 1:04:31 | 1:04:35 | |
To see Woody light a cigarette... | 1:04:36 | 1:04:39 | |
He wouldn't let anybody else do it for him. | 1:04:42 | 1:04:44 | |
He'd try to strike the match. | 1:04:52 | 1:04:55 | |
You don't say, "Will you let me do it?" | 1:04:56 | 1:04:58 | |
You just sit there. | 1:04:58 | 1:04:59 | |
And finally, he'd get it and he'd look at you through his eyes. | 1:05:01 | 1:05:05 | |
He's talking to you but he can't speak. | 1:05:05 | 1:05:07 | |
The last time I saw him... | 1:05:10 | 1:05:13 | |
..I said..."Do you love me?" | 1:05:19 | 1:05:22 | |
He blinked. | 1:05:26 | 1:05:27 | |
And that was his way of saying yes. | 1:05:29 | 1:05:32 | |
We have to have a Woody. | 1:05:39 | 1:05:41 | |
You have to take him warts and all, like they say. | 1:05:41 | 1:05:45 | |
No, I knew Woody at the very best time in his life | 1:05:47 | 1:05:51 | |
when he was a young man with lots of ideals | 1:05:51 | 1:05:54 | |
and, I thought, a lot of talent. | 1:05:54 | 1:05:57 | |
And that's the Woody I centre on. | 1:05:57 | 1:05:59 | |
That's the one I come in on | 1:05:59 | 1:06:01 | |
and I'm not going to remember any other Woody. | 1:06:01 | 1:06:03 | |
# This land is your land | 1:06:14 | 1:06:16 | |
# And this land is my land | 1:06:16 | 1:06:19 | |
# From the California | 1:06:19 | 1:06:21 | |
# To the New York island | 1:06:21 | 1:06:23 | |
# And the Redwood Forest | 1:06:23 | 1:06:26 | |
# And the Gulf Stream waters | 1:06:26 | 1:06:29 | |
# This land was made for you and me | 1:06:29 | 1:06:33 | |
# As I went a-walking | 1:06:34 | 1:06:37 | |
# That ribbon of highway | 1:06:37 | 1:06:39 | |
# I saw above me | 1:06:39 | 1:06:41 | |
# That endless skyway | 1:06:41 | 1:06:44 | |
# Saw below me | 1:06:44 | 1:06:46 | |
# That golden valley | 1:06:46 | 1:06:50 | |
# This land was made for you and me | 1:06:50 | 1:06:53 | |
# When the sun comes shining | 1:06:55 | 1:06:57 | |
# And I was strolling | 1:06:57 | 1:07:00 | |
# And the wheat fields waving | 1:07:00 | 1:07:02 | |
# And the dust clouds rolling | 1:07:02 | 1:07:05 | |
# The voice was chatting | 1:07:05 | 1:07:08 | |
# And the fog was lifting | 1:07:08 | 1:07:11 | |
# This land was made For you and me. # | 1:07:11 | 1:07:14 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 1:07:14 | 1:07:17 |