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we went to the Woody Guthrie museum exhibit yesterday afternoon. a couple of guitars, alot of nice pictures and artwork by Woody. it was nice to see some of his original song manuscripts — some hand written, some typed, such as Oklahoma Hills, Pastures of Plenty, California Stars, This land is Your Land (actually named “God Blessed America”)
it was like a tomb in there… so quiet. now and then you could hear Woody singing something, i think it was Planewreck at Los Gatos, like a faint elevator music. there had been a kid’s choir there earlier but we missed that. got a great concert coming up Saturday, though!
also, there was a little scrap of paper w/ Woody’s scribbling on it. turns out, it was apparently lifted by John Mellencamp for the beginning two or three lines of his song “Small Town”. there was a copy of Dylan’s first lp he’d given to Woody. Bob had written out some of the lyrics of Song to Woody on the front of it. a lame letter John Lennon had apparently tossed off to Woody
i’m playing Mermaid avenue now, wishing Bragg and Wilco were gonna be there…
here’s some of it: a few pictures and short video
http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=272&articleid=20120205_272_D1_CUTLIN367987
HA. I thought I had posted this link but apparently forgot. JM talks about “borrowing” from Woody.
http://www.mellencamp.com/news.html?n_id=1644
Mellencamp is one of the top-selling and charting American musicians, with hits that include “Pink Houses,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Rain On The Scarecrow,” “Paper In Fire,” “Crumblin’ Down,” “Small Town,” “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.,” “Hurts So Good,” “Jack And Diane” and dozens more.
But, “I’ve stolen so many lines from him it’s ridiculous,” he said, laughing.
“That’s really the question you should ask everybody: ‘So how much s— have you stolen from Woody?’ … Oh, a lot. But if you look around at all contemporary songwriters who do pop songs. They’ll tell you, ‘Well, I stole this from Woody, I got that from Woody.’ “
Guthrie often did the same thing, Mellencamp said.
“Of course Woody was a huge thief himself and proud of it. He’d take music and write his own lyrics. He’d rewrite other people’s songs.”
That’s how most art is created, Mellencamp said.
“I mean, people would say, ‘Woody, that song sounds just like so-and-so or such-and-such and he’d say, ‘Well, gosh-darn it, I meant for it to!’ “
There is perhaps one thing that has inspired Mellencamp the most, he said.
“Just being able to stand up for himself and be counted as an individual. Plus, he also lived outside of the music business.”
In a time before major record label deals, arena tours and million-dollar contracts, Guthrie was out in the cotton fields playing to migrant workers. He wrote and performed because he felt compelled to, Mellencamp said.
“You, know, I’ve always been an outsider, too.”
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