54 Woody Guthrie Quotes On Politics & Power Of Folk Music
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, better known as Woody Guthrie, was a celebrated American singer, musician and songwriter. His work proved an inspiration for many contemporary legends such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Tom Paxton and many more. Guthrie established his stature as a legend of Folk music through numerous traditional and children’s songs. Guthrie’s iconic track ‘This Land Is Your Land’ and several other recordings also featured in the Library of Congress. This leader of American Folk movement was also famous for his slogan carved on his guitar- ‘This machine kills fascists’. Majority of his songs were based on the struggles and hardships the farmers faced during ‘the Great Depression’ and ‘Dust Bowl Era’ of the United States. After suffering from complications of Huntington's disease, he passed on the baton of his folk music legacy to his son, Arlo Guthrie. Let us go through some of the quotes from this legend of American music culture.
Take it easy, but take it.
It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people
I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.
Was a great high wall there that tried to stop me. Was a great big sign there said private Property but on the back side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me.
Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.
If we fix it so's you can't make money on war, we'll all forget what we're killing folks for.
Some men rob you with a six-gun -- others rob you with a fountain pen.
I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law.
The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine.
The best way to get to know any bunch of people is to go and listen to their music.
There's several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and counties where it ain't too healthy to talk too loud, speak your mind, or even vote like you want to, folks have found other ways of getting the word around. One of the mainest ways is by singing.
Life has a habit of not staying hitched. You got to ride it like you find it.
I better quit my talking 'cause I told you all I know But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is done, That'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.
Life's pretty tough . . . you're lucky if you live through it.
I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that.
Love is the only medicine I believe in.
One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!
Anyone who used more than three chords is just showing off.
You can't write a good song about a whorehouse unless you've been in one.
Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.
Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.
The words are the important thing. Don't worry about tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow, and you've got a new tune.
Left wing. Right wing. Chicken wing.
A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.
I ain't a communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.
This machine kills fascists.
A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes. I slept on the ground in the light of the moon. On the edge of the city you'll see us and then, we come with the dust and we go with the wind.
You oil field workers, come and listen to me I'm goin' to tell you a story about old John D. That company union made a fool out of me. That company union don't charge no dues It leaves you a-singing them Rockefeller blues. That company union made a fool out of me. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin', rollin' over the sea. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin' over the sea.
