Woody Guthrie was a socially-active American folk musician best known for writing the populist anthem "This Land is Your Land", and carrying a guitar emblazoned with the words "this machine kills fascists" throughout World War II. Woody's father, Charley Guthrie, is reported to have been part of a lynch mob that hung an African American woman, Laura Nelson on May 25, 1911, near Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.[1] Woody was named after Democrat segregationist President Woodrow Wilson. Woody was the father of folk-rock singer Arlo Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie wrote a weekly column for The Daily Worker and said, “The best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party”.[2] Google based their Independence day logo in 2012 on "This Land Is Your Land", an ode to leftism.
It was a response to “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin, which Guthrie found complacent and cliché-ridden. His original manuscript contains verses that denounce property rights, but the standard rendition cut that material ...[3]
Categories: [Musicians] [Communists]