Neither Hero nor Myth

Besides contributing nothing to a fuller understanding of folk music as an art form, it is also responsible for the tasteless mythmaking that plagues the memory of folk music's towering figures, especially Woody Guthrie. Everyone is eager to talk about Guthrie the man, the son, the father, the rambler; almost no one discusses Guthrie the artist, which, obviously, will be the basis for determining Guthrie's essential contribution to folk music... The social and political conditions of time and place may be essential to an intelligent understanding of some folksongs. For others it is irrelevant. To know that Guthrie was able to make songs out of the suffering of the Depression is most relevant; to know that he picked tomatoes is irrelevant

Art · Folklore · HERO · Literature · Mythology · Education Methods and Practices · Music History and Culture · Poetry Analysis and Criticism

• Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People

  D K Wilgus, Alan Lomax et al.•Western Folklore•1969

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• The Oxford History of the American People

  Richard H Dillon, Samuel Eliot Morison•Western Folklore•1966

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