[at-l] As Woody Guthrie said . . .

[gaudet@mediaone.net (Arthur Gaudet)]

>At 07:35 AM 7/5/01 -0400, SaraSW@aol.com wrote:
>>. . . so long; it's been good to know ya.

Last night we in Boston/Cambridge hosted a fireworks display for 
450,000 of our closest friends. Arlo Guthrie performed 3 verses of 
his father's song "This Land is Your Land".

Interesting from where I was, on the steps of MIT's Sloan Institute, 
what I observed. All the previous patriotic songs were met with 
little crowd response, there were about 8, starting with "My Country 
"Tis of thee"... (This was all broadcast on A&E). Guthrie's song 
brought a very noticeable response - people stood, raised their 
hands, some hugged and lots sang along. It happened only on "This 
Land ...", and not on "City of New Orleans", aka "Good morning 
America".

It was beautiful. Woody was quite a spirit, and also a product of his 
time. His support of projects like the Columbia River Dam seem 
"wrong" for me at this time, but he wrote that it was bringing work 
to people who needed a hand up. People were his concern. He was also 
a wanderer, like many of us on at-l.

Here's a little known verse that Arlo sang last night, after he told 
a little story of learning it from his dad. By the time Arlo knew his 
father Huntington's Chorea had wreaked havoc on his body, so he could 
barely hold a guitar:

"Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: No Trespassing
But on the back side it didn't say nothing --
This land was made for you and me "

Rd '97