The Garden Song. I like this Arlo Guthrie cat.

FunkBuddha

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
2,086
How in the hell have I been alive 35 years and not enjoyed this so-called "folk music". I've spent the whole weekend reading about and listening to Arlo and Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan. I know they were communists and all but this is good shit. Kinda makes me miss smoking weed.

 
Arlo Guthrie is a Ron Paul guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie#Politics

A registered Republican, Guthrie endorsed Texas Congressman Ron Paul for the 2008 Republican Party nomination. He said, "I love this guy. Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there. I'm with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago. I look forward to the day when we can work out the differences we have with the same revolutionary vision and enthusiasm that is our American legacy." He told The New York Times Magazine that he is a Republican because, "We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition."
 
I'm only 3 years younger than you but I got into the folk at age 18 and have sort of been stuck in it ever since.

It's kind of funny that Arlo was a Ron Paul guy when his dad was such a leftist.
 
I'm thinking about learning to play the banjo and walking around the office protesting.

Was the folk revival a communist front? It sure seems that way from what I've read.

From what I understand, Pete Seeger was going around to the "Pioneer Camps" full of red-diaper children and teaching them these folk songs with sometimes hidden/sometimes not communist messages in the 40s and 50s. Lew Rockwell calls him the red troubador. Anyhow, this was an interesting article on the subject.
 
I'm thinking about learning to play the banjo and walking around the office protesting.

Was the folk revival a communist front? It sure seems that way from what I've read.

From what I understand, Pete Seeger was going around to the "Pioneer Camps" full of red-diaper children and teaching them these folk songs with sometimes hidden/sometimes not communist messages in the 40s and 50s. Lew Rockwell calls him the red troubador. Anyhow, this was an interesting article on the subject.

It's like with anything. You and I have could have an alliance for a while with radical leftists based on foreign policy and civil rights.

Here's yesterday's example:


Here's an anarchist leftist that tells the real truth:



Pete Seeger never had the balls nor intellect to discuss such things.
 
Went to see Arlo live with my mom a few years ago, such good memories. He even signed two copies of "Mooses Come Walking" for my kids.

Mom continues to be such a non-informed lefty, but over the years Arlo and I have at least convinced her that Ron Paul is not as evil as the rest of the republicans.
 
Here he is singing a song some unknown songwriter (at the time) wrote and performed for Guthrie after a show in a bar years ago.



Don't know if I enjoy his singing or his tales more. But I do think he's more fun live.
 
I'm only 3 years younger than you but I got into the folk at age 18 and have sort of been stuck in it ever since.

It's kind of funny that Arlo was a Ron Paul guy when his dad was such a leftist.


"All you fascists bound to lose, bound to lose." Given that the left and right are basically each fascists to equal degrees, I'm sure that Woody would be a Paul guy now, too.
 
I think Woody probably would be a RP supporter also.

After much research on the matter I tend to agree with the previous poster about Pete Seeger. I think he was a fantastic musician and performer and all around well-intentioned soul. Ithink we should all be greatful for the work that he and others did to preserve some of the old folk music that might have been lost today had they not. But I think he was a patsy for the left and whether he knew it or not (I think he did), the folk-music revival was a communist front.

For all of the people championing communism in the labor unions in the earlier half of the 20th century, seeing the atrocities committed by their ideological leaders on the other side of the planet must have been world shattering. The "radical left" then moved towards anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndiclism from what I've gathered.
 
Let's keep up the folk music!

2 songs, same title, different songs, different artists.


Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die
_____________


From Bagdad to Baltimore, a world-wide war
The tactic of destruction as a double-bladed sword
As the contracts hit the billions and the billions hit the street
In protest of the slaughter, getting slaughtered police
We grow to love our neighbors then to stab them in the back
In a crooked game of power with a deck that's always stacked
The goal's to struggle through your labor just to find your place in line
While the profiteers repeat the pattern, holding down rewind
And if the foreground's so destructive think what's happening behind
If I had a rocket launcher, my place would be defined

I watch the television, see the headlines now and then
Slogan after slogan, repeating the refrain
We trust these movie-stars of media, and we're fetishizing fame
As little tidbits of reality go flashing across the screen
They say that everything is even it's all following the plan
The dead are stacked in piles being bulldozed in the sand
There's nothing different about it, it's just like all the rest
Limbless children without parents, homeless cancer-ridden vets
They try to cloak it all in logos, every day another myth
The news reporters smiles, gaining stories from the death
What they did to Southeast Asia they are doing here today
If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay

Down at Central Booking in the over crowded cells
The poor are housed together fending for themselves
Against the prison guard's union, the criminals with keys
Calling punishment "correction", doing anything they please
Locked away inside this concrete cage all hope is torn apart
As the guards complete the cycle breaking down the human heart
Until the verdict is not guilty or the final lever's pulled
Still the circle is unbroken and the cells are always full
You know the war across the ocean? Well here's the one at home
From the ghetto to the graveyard, the path is set in stone
The duty done by prisons is maintaining poverty
If I had a rocket launcher, I'd abolish slavery

Time continues slowly sometimes dangerously still
Everyday a new beginning finds you staring up the hill
Another war another clearcut, another killer cop
A society collapsing with the ticking of the clock
You'd think there'd never be an outlet, never something so immense
That it could break this spell of silence and the deeds it represents
But between the benefactor's and the people beaten back
It's evident by history that something's gonna crack
And when it does there's only action, the changing of the hands
Aggression laying waste to all the best laid plans
And don't blame me if I'm smiling when it all comes tumbling down
If I had a rocket launcher, I would make each second count
 
Check out the band Deer Tick, you can thank me later.

I love folk, dad made me listen to Alice's Restaurant every Thanksgiving.
 
Last edited:
A couple you should check out.....

Jim Lampos "Sons Of Liberty" off the Thunder Moon album.

Dave Staigle "Liberty" off the Liberty album.
 
Another 2 songs. One copies the other but is more realistic.

Don't get me wrong. I love Bob Dylan but he never really cared about idealism. That's why he played in China last year and let their govt edit his playlist.



_____

Now for reality:



Come gather round people and fall to your knees
and bow to the red white and blue m16's
if you liked the riot cops you'll love the marines
they'll be at all of your demonstrations
to beat up your bodies and tear down your dreams
for the times, they are not a-changin'

come children and students abide by our rules
we'll send in the troops to recruit at your schools
and we'll tell you it's noble, we'll tell you it's cool
and you'll hear every word that we're saying
and there's room in the jails if the classrooms are full
for the times, they are not a-changin'

come mothers and fathers and friends of the slain
while we exploit your loses to fund our campaigns
we brought you the war, now there's no one to blame
you best hope the new leader ain't crazy
you can vote how you want but the outcomes the same
for the times, they are not a-changin'

come senators, congress men, don't fear a thing
they'll fall in the line behind the new king
and accept with a smile what little you bring
they'll forget all the wars you're arangin
the bullets they'll peirce and the tasers will sting
for the times, they are not a-changin'

come presidents, dictators take what you will
these people are yours to tax and to kill
if they ever rise up theres walls you can build
the system is strong you're maintaining
just speak with a smile and lie with a skill
for the times, they are not a-changin'

the paths they are plain, the choices are clear
if things are to change, friends, it's gotta start here
and if now ain't the time i hope the times near
while there is still something left worth saving
so stand up fight back to hell with your fear
for the times, they are not a-changin'
Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858533764/#ixKYYFcx9jIx2FAr.99
 
Back
Top