"Do Re Mi" Woody Guthrie

In the first video where Woodie Guthrie is singing live, the videographer frames him sitting playing his guitar with an old pedal machine in front of him and a record player in the foreground. I decided to explore this tool. It is a stationary pedal powered machine that can be applied to lathes, tool sharpeners, and a variety of other tools. This is probably so prominent in the footage because of its importance in working, which is a major theme in Guthrie’s songs. It is also a symbol for the message Guthrie presents to people in his songs in general where working becomes a his idea of movement for social change. 

My project is an inked drawing of one of these pedal powered machines. I also think it is important that it is not powered by an engine, but by human power, which makes the work produced even more humanly. The song is “Do Re Mi” because the song sums up America in the sense that it is thought of as a gloryland full of riches, and places like California are idealized as places where people can become prosperous. But work and how much people can make always stands in the way. “Do Re Mi” is a song Guthrie described as being a song where people are “lonesome for a job, they’re lonesome for some spending money…” (Brooks, 245). This tool symbolizes that choice to work but also the fact that no matter hardworking someone is, it may not be enough if they “ain’t got the do re mi.”

This weekend the mountain bike race was hosted by Chico State in Oroville. After the race, my parents and I went to a hand tool museum, Bolt's Tool Museum in town. They had some boxes with tools your could buy as a donation to the museum, and I found a few treasures, including this hand powered drill. It can still work, and me and my dad are going to put a replacement wooden handle on the crank arm side. Eventually, I want to use this to make something! I thought it would go well in the blog since it relates so well to the working theme.

The “This Machine Kills Fascists” video that plays “Do Re Mi” in the background uses images that address what Guthrie is singing about… how there is a price to pay to achieve what is desired. In this case it is the “paradise” of California, but it costs money. “This Machine Kills Fascists...” on his guitar relates to the video since it depicts film from wartime dealing with fascism. I see it also as addressing the cost of war on America, which suggests that if what is desired is a solution (after war) then that is going to have a price to pay, just like riding a train requires money (seen in the image of two men walking with the “next time try the train - relax!” billboard). The phrase on Guthrie’s guitar, “This Machine Kills Fascists” tells of the guitar’s purpose to not only create music but also was a way to make a few bucks; Guthrie believed fascism to take money from those in need and it would end up with one elite class.

This makes perfect sense for Woody Guthrie to have this way of thinking from a quote he says in the introduction to Bound For Glory; “I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.” This tells so much of his character in that he shows care for others while applying it to himself. He seemed to have valued the effort work takes and what should be earned from work. This was also brought up several times in the first chapter of his autobiography “Soldiers in the Dust.” One of the first arguments (of many to come) was about whether Guthrie knows what it means to work and later several people on the freight argued about this among each other. Work took on a meaning of value where the men could feel higher than another based on this.

An even more dramatic image than Guthrie's account of the packed freight train

Woody Guthrie has a diverse collection of songs that reveal his encounters with the world but also give much more to the people who listen. I found it interesting, and a nice change, that Spud Terkel pointed out how his songs have “universal appeal” (Terkel, x), which differs from the other folk artists we have learned about because Guthrie is not appealing only to “folk” during his time but an international audience, as Terkel mentions Guthrie’s India trip.

Red River Valley. The version we have from the first download has a sadder tone and when I close my eyes and listen, I feel the sadness of the girl leaving the valley. In this version I feel a different sense where the memories that the singer values of the girl in the valley are more present and not watered down by the solemn truth of her leaving. In other words the first version is a funeral but this version is a celebration of life. Both lose the person but remembers in different tones.

A family walking to California to escape the Dust Bowl

Woody Guthrie’s version of “This Land is Your Land” is my favorite out of the three. It is great when he sings it because it parallels his awareness of people and the environment around him. In the chapter “Soldiers in the Dust” in his autobiography, he describes laying on the train and looking up at the sky and then rain clouds above him. Then he even writes in detail about the train bouncing and how it strained his neck and the different things he tried to do to get comfy… this kind of awareness is what brings me to like Guthrie’s character so much. He was sensitive to his surrounds, which is what made him able to produce songs so many people could relate to. For “This Land is Your Land” he combines his observations of the beauty of the land with the importance to allow all to enjoy it through sharing. Dylan’s version feels more impersonal for me. When I first sang this song in elementary school I felt connected and that I thought I knew exactly what I was singing about, which was how lush America was. Now that I reconsider, this may have also been Guthrie addressing the Dust Bowl and how people migrating to places like California needed the land to be shared with them too.

My elementary school image of "This Land is Your Land"
 (and still is my image)

This is how Woody Guthrie became the spokesperson for the common man, by understanding the curve balls life throws… his childhood was full of them with the devastating losses of his family members. He was in the brutal situations other men went through, like the freight train rides that so many Americans took. He knew what it meant to work to live. And he was well traveled across the land. All of these elements that Guthrie brings together in each of his songs creates the ability for him to relate to nearly all “common men” and women… it’s because he has been in their shoes.