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That. Wilson Guthrie was born on July 14th 1912
Oklahoma. He died in Creedmore hospital New York on October 3rd 1967. When he became a legend in his own time partly because of his extended hospitalization for the progress of nerve disease from which he died. But his childhood and life were difficult. In one of a series of conversations with Alan Lomax recorded in 1940 when he speaks of his youth about a little bit different. I wasn't in the class but John Steinbeck called the oak in. The Star which was worth about thirty five forty thousand dollars and had everything that he started having a little bad luck in fact I had a little bit of it I don't know whether it's worth talking about or not and I would put on a six room house burn down that just it was Belt was the biggest punishment whole
country. Right after that. My sister. Even said her saffron called a fire accidentally there's two different stories got out about it. In a way she was having a little difficulty with their schoolwork and she had to stay home and do some work and. She caught a farmhouse she was doing some earning that afternoon on the old Kirsteen stove. As highly unsafe and I am certain in them days and this one quarter foreign She ran around the house about twice for anybody could catch or the next day she died. And my mother in law was a little bit too much for her nerves or something I don't know exactly how it was but anyway my mother in the insane asylum in Norman Oklahoma.
Then about that same time. Father mysteriously for some reason or other caught a far there's a lot of people say they said as far as say that. He caught a far accidentally ours will think that he done it on purpose because he lost all that money used to raise some of the best China holds in that whole country and and something like that he was part of the world and they would have done some good. Working hard on brothers and sisters to get in on the cistern. Two brothers they all felt pretty good until. All those things happened in the Founders scattered all us kids had to be adopted by families of the family people that was living
in Littleton and after they took to the road would be bombed around the oil boom towns in northern Texas for a while taking odd jobs a sign painter root beer salesman and anything else he could find that would feed him and give him a place to sleep. An invitation from an aunt in California put him on the road west. But when he arrived in Angel's gap he found his aunt's house too rich for his taste. So without even ringing the doorbell he hit the road and went south in Los Angeles. He found himself a small radio station and did a regular show. At first he was just playing and singing the old standards. But more and more he wrote on his own. That was where he met Will Gere an actor with whom we became fast friends and to whom we owe thanks for assistance with this series will describes meeting Woody. Having heard him on the radio.
What is. Perhaps the most famous of all Woody songs known even by those people who've never heard his name. Is This Land Is Your Land by Pete Seeger and the Weavers. You are going to die. I am on The
Voice Warsong living. Where I was why and where I am the more I was with my at the R. I or the boy I was and I mean what do I. Mean. Well the song I am resigning. And I was the only boy on the bus. The bar boys were doing. The boys buying me my and
the and the and and and and I am the and I am and I am. With the and the and. What became of a long tradition that of the ballad maker he put new words to old tunes and commented on what was going on around him. This is Will Geer again reading what he songwriting philosophy.
I never did get around to. The song wrong. What do you both reported and editorialized Here he is singing so long it's been good to know you. Most of the original lyrics. Good to know you know. I'll sing this song but I've sang in.
The city oh oh. Oh oh oh. You know way like a horse you know that storm hit people all congregated in their little houses. And in the room in the house that I was in those
12 or 15 people that always was there. Any TO THE so long it's been lonely at home and I got. Almost there got to be drifting on. My own here is my. Telephone rang and they jumped off the wall that was the bridge you're in is called. Look at this or got a good songs out of me. Good to know you so long you know you go along. Good to know you this doesn't bother me you know. What do you revive the broadside song with a profound sensitivity to the binding force in
music. He sang when the unions were organizing in the 30s and 40s. He helped introduce a middle class to folk music and left a legacy of young singer songwriters who are known as Woody's children. Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger are the best known but there are many others. Two of the programs in the series will take a look at some of these children. Meanwhile our next program will deal with some of the children's songs that Woody and his daughter wrote that have been delighting children ever since. You have been listening to hard travelling series devoted to the life and music of Woody Guthrie. Written and produced by the University of
Texas at Austin. This is the national radio network.
Series
Hard travelin'
Episode
The man behind the legend
Producing Organization
University of Texas
KUT (Radio station : Austin, Tex.)
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-1j97b71f
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Description
Episode Description
This program focuses on Guthrie's childhood and how he came to hit the road.
Series Description
A series about Woody Guthrie and his Depression-era folk music.
Date
1967-11-14
Topics
Music
Social Issues
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:14:51
Embed Code
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Credits
Host: Adams, Judith
Interviewee: Geer, Will
Performer: Guthrie, Woody, 1912-1967
Performer: Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014
Performing Group: Weavers (Musical group)
Producing Organization: University of Texas
Producing Organization: KUT (Radio station : Austin, Tex.)
Writer: Tangley, Ralph
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 68-1-2 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:14:29
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Citations
Chicago: “Hard travelin'; The man behind the legend,” 1967-11-14, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-1j97b71f.
MLA: “Hard travelin'; The man behind the legend.” 1967-11-14. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-1j97b71f>.
APA: Hard travelin'; The man behind the legend. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-1j97b71f