Remember Woody Guthrie?

Question

He was a 1930's, 40's and 50's singer, and I think he became a recluse in the 60's, or was it a mental ailment?

Answer 1

Well, not personally, I ain't that old : )

Huge, huge influence on modern songwriting.

To oversimplify (but with a lot of truth): No Woody Guthrie, no Bob Dylan (Guthrie was Dylan's No 1 influence as a 'protest singer'), hence no artistic development of the modern 'singer-songwriter', hence goodbye to a big chunk of modern-day music.

His last days were sad; he got Huntington's disease and got shuttled around psychiatric hospitals for a few years before his death. He wasn't really as famous as he deserved to be when he was alive.

The best original Woody is on 'Dust Bowl Ballads.'

If you're a Woody Guthrie fan, then something cool for you to check out would be a collaboration between Wilco and a British singer called Billy Bragg, where they recorded many of Woody's unrecorded and / or unfinished songs.

The albums are called Mermaid Avenue Vol I and Mermaid Avenue Vol II, if they're not in your store get them from Amazon. Pretty good, and worth a listen, IMHO.

If you like the feel, then track down a more recent album by Bruce Springsteen ('We Shall Overcome') where he covered a lot of Pete Seeger tunes (Pete being a 'musical descendant' of Woody Guthrie!)

Answer 2

I don't know, ..but I had a HUGE poster of his son Arlo.
He was a cool hippie....he was flipping the bird. wew !!

Answer 3

his son Arlo became more famous in the sixties and seventies

Answer 4

He died in 1967 of huntington's disease

Answer 5

this land is your land, this land is my land...

Answer 6

no,i know of him

Answer 7

---Jesus Christ!