Thursday 26 October 2017

Deportee: Interpretations of a Woodie Guthrie Song Lyric



I was chatting to Neil Harris at Dorchester market yesterday, and we talked briefly about the songs of Woodie Guthrie (as one does). Later, I thought about the closure of Portland's IRC (Immigration Removal Centre) - and some past incidents there that have been reported over the last three or four years.


'Extraordinary' number of detainees sent to mental health hospitals from the Verne, inquest hears, Dorset Echo


Home Office letter tells EU citizen to ‘go home or go elsewhere’, The Observer (update)


It made me go back to Woodie Guthrie's poem, Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).

Here are various interpretations of the poem/song-lyric, as set to the melody by Martin Hoffman, on YouTube:


Cisco Houston 

Arlo Guthrie and Hoyt Axton


Arlo Guthrie with Emmylou Harris




THE LONG ROAD TO PEEKSHILL

"The story of Woody Guthrie’s transformation from a youthful Oklahoma racist to the anti-racist champion who risked his life holding the line against American fascism during the notorious Peekskill riots of 1949".

See also, Billy Bragg (Burton Bradstock resident), Mermaid Avenue

I am going to hear Billy Bragg at the sold-out Bridport Literary Festival event on Sunday night, on "Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World".







Woodie Guthrie and Skiffle:

Rye Whisky, Woodie Guthrie

Worried Man Blues

Hard Travellin'

Dead or Alive

The Grand Coulee Dam

So long it's been good to know you

Lonnie Donegan, Hard Travellin'

Lonnie Donegan - So Long 'Medley' (Rare Stereo Mix - 1958)

Lonnie Donegan and Woodie Guthrie songs








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