BY THOMAS CONNER
© Tulsa World It was the spring of 1940, and Woody Guthrie was becoming a star — or as close to one as he'd ever let himself become. In May of that year, Woody stood alone in Victor Records' New Jersey recording studio and sang out some of his best — and now best-known — songs: "Dust Bowl Refugee," "I Ain't Got No Home," "Do Re Mi," "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" and many more. He was paid $300 for the session, more money than he'd ever thought a man could be paid for singing "dusty ol' songs." Immediately after the session, Woody wrote to his younger sister Mary Jo back in Oklahoma about his recent good fortune in New York City. "I just bought a new Plymouth, and it really splits the breeze," he said. Then he added, "I'm coming to Oklahoma as soon as I get a check from CBS." Months later, he began that journey back home, and his traveling companion was fellow folksinger Pete Seeger. It would be a pivotal journey for Woody's political motivations and a crystallizing moment in his personal life. According to Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie: A Life, the two young folkies headed south and rolled through the Appalachian Mountains "carrying on a running conversation about music and politics." Along the trip, they stopped briefly in Tennessee to visit the Highlander Folk School, a training center for labor organizers. The owners, Myles and Zilphia Horton, were focusing on the use of music as an organizing tool. From then on, Woody became preoccupied with writing union songs, and later in the trip he would pen his ultimate labor anthem. They traveled through Arkansas into Oklahoma, stopping in Konawa to visit Woody's family. It was a tense reunion. The Guthries had been split up years before after Woody's mother Nora went to the mental hospital in Norman. After that, Mary Jo was sent to a relative's in Pampa, Texas, and Woody's father, Charley, moved to Oklahoma City. Woody and his older brother were left behind in Okemah to fend for themselves. Woody's inherent restlessness got the better of him, and he left soon after high school. Charley was in Konawa during this visit, but as Klein wrote, there was "a real tension between them, and the visit lasted only a few hours." They pressed on to Oklahoma City, where they spent a night with local Communist Party organizers Bob and Ina Wood. The Woods put Guthrie and Seeger to work, singing for the poor people in the Hooverville shantytown on the banks of the Canadian River. It was during this stay that Woody wrote one of his most recognizable songs, "Union Maid." Later in his life, Woody wrote that the song was inspired by the story of a southern Tenant Farmers' Union organizer who was badly beaten, but in a recent interview with the Tulsa World Seeger recalled the more direct inspiration for the song. "We were in the (Woods') office, and Ina said, ‘Woody, all these union songs are about brothers this and brothers that. How about writing songs about union women?' " Seeger said. "Well, it was true. The (union) meeting that night might have been broken up had it not been for the women and children singing songs and keeping it peaceful." "Union Maid" — with its chorus, "Oh you can't scare me, I'm stickin' to the union" — was written that night as a parody of an older song called "Redwing." At first, Seeger thought Woody's song was silly, but he said its simplicity and directness soon won him over. "His words now are much better than the ‘Redwing' words," he said. "Who would think that ‘stickin' to the' would be such a fun line to sing?" The rest of the trip was personally difficult. Woody and Pete continued to Pampa, where Woody had left behind his first wife and children. That reunion also was tense. Seeger didn't stay long, opting to continue travelling west after a few days. Woody left soon after that, leaving his wife the $300. He headed back through Oklahoma City and picked up Bob Wood, taking him back to New York City for a huge Communist Party convention at Madison Square Garden. When the convention was done, Woody gave Wood the Plymouth so he could get home. It was the official car of the Oklahoma Communist Party for several years after that. Comments are closed.
|
Thomas Conner
These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office. Archives
May 2014
Categories
All
|