booknotes
Woody Guthrie's war stories "Woody, Cisco, and Me: Seamen Three In The Merchant Marine" By Jim Longhi. University of Illinois, US$34.95 It was in 1960 that I first became aware of Woody Guthrie and his music. Other than numerous references to him in folk music publications (virtually all of them originating from New York) he would have been largely unknown to the general public at
When the "great folk scare of the early and mid-sixties, to quote Utah Phillips, burst forth, Woody and his songs were everywhere. College kids all over North Land", "So Long, it's Been Good to Know
"Pastures of Plenty", "Union Maid", and dozens of others. By 1964 even high school dropouts like myself were deeply immersed in his music, his legend and especially his mystique. Our heroes may have been Dylan, Seeger, Ochs, Paxton and the many other songwriters who were expressing the outrage that many of us felt about the hypocrasies of the time, but Woody, ahh Woody was the "real thing"
He was a working man from rural Oklahoma, taking on the "big boys" with a guitar, a razor sharp country wit, and an indominatable spirit. We knew he was very sick with Huntington's Chorea and wasting away in a hospital somewhere in New Jersey, and most importantly, we knew that if he could, he'd still be out on the picket lines raising a lot of shit.
What we didn't know for many years to come was "who was Woody Guthrie when he wasn't writing or singing or bumming freight trains?" His close friends and family carefully protected his image
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the 4th rears
This month the Fourth International is celebrating its 60" birthday. This beautiful 21 mm' badge marks the occasion. It is black, red and white on a copper-plated background.
You can view the badge on the Internet at www.internationalen.se/sp/badg.htm
The badge costs is 30 SEK (25FF,
$US4), or 20SEK (17FF, $US3) for orders of 10 or more.
during those years when his legend was growing so rapidly, and in so doing created the impression that Woody was virtually a flawless human being.
During that strange period of history that some call the "Reagan-Bush Years' and I would dub the "exposed generation", this kind of image protection came to an end. "Tell all" books and documentaries became the great North American entertainment, with heretofore spotless reputations disintegrating into mere human reached into the folk music community ones. This "humanising" process even (who would have thought we were important enough for anyone to care?) Biographies of Dylan, Phil Ochs, and (saints preserve us!) even Pete Seeger hit the mainstream book stores and were eagerly grabbed by folkies like me searching for the "inside dope" on these people who had become so important in our lives. Before the personal was political
When Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie, a Life (an incredibly well written book in my opinion) came out, the three dimensional Woody made his first appearance, and it wasn't an entirely pretty picture.
Let's face it, charismatic people get away with murder, (literally and figuritively) and Woody was no exception. As an effective and occasionally brilliant writer he deserved to be on the pedestal that we had created for him. As a husband, father, partner (and house guest) he was to put it very charitably, erratic at best. His lack of personal hygiene, disrespect for women, (don't give me that "he was a man of his
Scrap) and a general unwillingness to bend an inch for others, probably caused a lot of grief around him. Having said this (and feeling a mite guilty about it) I still wish that I had lived in the time and place that would have made meeting him possible.
In Jim Longhi's book (which is, I suspect, about 90% truthful) you will get to know a courageous, funny, and flat-out brilliant Woody. I won't spoil your fun by telling you anything about the "wind machine" chapter, other than to say that any high priced team of motivational therapists would have been damned
Woody, Cisco, and Me begins with Cisco Houston (Woody's singing buddy and an important part of the folk revival) bringing the young Jim Longhi (at diffferent times, a boxer, playwrite, labour organiser and lawyer) into the Guthrie "sphere" during the last months of World War Two.
The three decide to ship out with the Merchant Marine as part of the constant supply of convoys taking men and materials to war-torn Europe and Africa. It seems to them that this is preferable to following their draft board's advice and joining the army.
The constant danger from U boats and German fighter planes is with them (and us) throughout the duration of the book and the spectre of drowning or dying in an explosive fire colours their behaviour on each of the three voyages they take.
Longhi is an expressive writer and rarely is guilty of hiding (or even repressing) his emotions, which cannot be said about his sailing buddies. Both Woody and Cisco are stoic and often seem a mite uncomfortable with Jim's openness and constant hugs. What we learn about their feelings comes primarily from their actions under stress.
Although the book is as suspenseful as a good novel, there is great humour throughout. This is due in no small part to Longhi's ability to observe, filter, separate, and finally communicate. Considering that he is in his seventies now there may be no more books, and if that is the case, then I am truly sorry, for his style makes a relatively obscure part of folk music's history come vibrantly alive.
If you're wondering why I haven't said much about what actually happens during Woody, Cisco, and Me, well, I've been making a conscious effort not to. The three seamens' adventures are many, varied, funny, frightening, and touching and I'll be damned if I'm going to spoil a great
Suffice to say that their politics are an important factor in the story (Jim is a Communist party member and Woody and Cisco would be too were it not for having to go to meetings) and although Woody seems to be the prime focus, we learn a lot
I recommend the book highly, but I suspect you'll have to hunt for a copy. Mainstream it's not, and you may have to contact the publisher directly. * *Rick Fielding is a Toronto songwriter and musician, who performs mostly in New England. He has recorded an album of traditional and political songs called "Lifeline" with Folk-Legacy Records in Connecticut, and will be releasing a new album on Borealis records early in the new year. He hosts the folk music program "Acoustic Workshop" every Monday night at 9pm on CIUT 89.5 fm. A bolshie old man Red Hot: the life and times of Nick Origlass, by Hall Greenland. "Nick Origlass was one of the most remarkable and troublesome characters on the Australian left," write the publishers of this fascinating biography. "Origlass was a man who would not be silenced, and was expelled from the Communist Party, from the Labor Party (twice), from the 4th International group, and even from his local council (they carried him out, chair and all). Naturally his workmates and fellow citizens re-elected him time and time again."
Biographer Hall Greenland traces his subiect's political life from the Mt Isa Beer Strike of 1929 to Sydney's 1990s environmental battles. Wellington Lane Press (1998), ISBN 0 908022 14 X. 336p. Order for £10 from 11 Temple Fortune Lane, London, NW11 7UB, Britain
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