Where has all the smegma gone?....long time passing.

No one out there seems to be making a big douche of themselves lately...it's been weeks since I've even come up with a nominee. Could it be that the world is becoming a slightly better place?

Where's Dick Cheney? I'm sure he's up to something that I don't approve of.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Video Blog experiment

The video is dark until about the 2 minute point and there seems to be some high frequency audio interference caused by the TV to the camera. But hey, we're just learning here.




corrections to note: I made a flub and said "Merrie Melodies" went to color in 1944, I meant 1934. This was just as impromptu as my regular posts and it just proves one thing. On this blog NOTHING hits the editing room floor EXCEPT the editors feet.

"This machine kills Fascists!"

"This machine kills Fascists" is what Woody Guthrie painted or carved or hung on the front of his guitar. It wasn't that he thought his guitar playing did this, or his singing, or his songs...his opinion was getting people together to sing together was where the power was...together. I used "Together" that many times in one sentence on purpose all you proof-readers out there.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie would have been 97 years old today, nd if he were still here, he'd be just as full of contempt for peoples unjust treatment of others as always...and willing to write and sing about it. He said everything he learned was from hobos and children, children first. He sang political songs, sure. But he also sang barn dance songs, happy songs, travelin' songs, story songs, children's songs...on and on...all with he hoped you'd sing along with him.

There would be a lot to write about Woody, his history, his mother's battle with mental illness, his own battle with a neurological disorder, his marriage, his kids, his time in the service, his time in the Oklahoma oil fields. But the real story is how he knew music was the important thing he could bring to the world. Music was what he could do that was worth doing. If you want to read more about him, I think you should. But this is about music. Sing, dang ya! If something moves you, sing about it! If possible, sing with a bunch of friends, but even if you're alone, sing! That's what Woody taught us.

Woody on the far left. Fitting.

Woody's cartoon about his first trip to California (above) and my favorite Woody dustbowl ballad/trekking to California song of his (below).

Woody lolly-gagging in the lower right. Showing his boredom with show business.

Woody says, "Take it easy...but take it!".

Big time publicity photo. Woody and Burl Ives tramping it up in Central Park.

The original words to "This Land is Your Land" originally titled "God Blessed America".

Woody in the service, WWII.

Woody in the service of a bigger war.

Woody's cartoon of him singing. Maybe "So Long It's Been Good to Know You"?

BONUS:

Here's a song by Steve Earle called "Christmas in Washington". It was written during Bill Clinton's second election to President. This bootleg concert footage was shot after George W.'s second. It's worth listening to even with no clear picture. It's not about Christmas and it's not about Washington. It's about heroes. It's about Woody. Enjoy.

It was Christmas time in Washington

The Democrats rehearsed

Gettin' in to gear for four more years

Of things not getting worse

Republicans drank whiskey neat

And thank their lucky stars

They said, "He cannot seek another term,

"There'll be no more FDR's"

And I sat home in Tennessee

Just staring at the screen

An uneasy feeling in my chest

Wonderin' what it means

So come back Woody Guthrie

Come back to us now

Tear your eyes from Paradise

And rise again somehow

If you run into Jesus

Maybe he can help us out

Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once

Back in my younger days

Somewhere I failed to find your trail

Now I'm stumblin' through this haze

But there's killers on the highway now

And a man can't get around

So I sold my soul for wheels that roll

Now I'm stuck here in this town

There's foxes in the henhouse

Cows out in the corn

The unions have been busted

Their proud red banners torn

If you listen to the radio

You'd think that all was well

But you and me and Cisco know

It's goin' straight to hell

Come back Emma Goldman

Rise up Old Joe Hill

The Barricades are going up

And they cannot break our will

Come back to us Malcolm X

And Martin Luther King

We're marching into Selma

As the bells of freedom ring

Jeff Overturf who? part 5: "Froggie Went A Courtin'"

The 5 comic book pages here are the original supplemental feature to Turf Log issue #2, "Kindegarten: The Final Frontier". Written and drawn by me back in 1994, with color splashed on them in 2009.

That story was a love story, so the song in the back was of course a love song...one that a 5 year old boy could get behind. This is a song you should all remember from childhood, but just in case your memory is foggy I've included this "Uncle Jeffy Pre-Approved Video" of me singing it to jog your memory.



Now that you've got the tune in your head, sing along with the comic!

This song has been recorded by everyone from Tex Ritter to Bruce Springsteen. It's a 16th century folk song from England that was originally written about a romance between Queen Elizabeth I and a French noble man named Francois, the Duke of Anjou. It traveled to America and was one of hundreds of songs trapped in that wonderful time capsule behind the Appalachia Mountains and preserved until the 1930's when the 20th century flushed them all out. Over the years it had added a few modern verses, but this is about the way it came out when troubadours like Jimmy Driftwood and Woody Guthrie brought it to our attention as a whole.

BONUS:

While searching for a good early version of this (unsuccessfully) I came across this great contemporary one. I'm not sure where this woman is from or much about her at all, but she certainly understands that this is a love song.

Flat-Land poet

Happy birthday to Butch Hancock, who tuns 64 today.

Butch is amongst the best singer-songwriters of our time, and greatly acknowledged as so in his home state of Texas. In my house too.

Butch has been singing his songs for folks since 1968. In 1972 he teamed up with 2 fiends of his, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, to form a group called "The Flatlanders". Their one album was a critical success but tanked commercially and was soon forgotten, so the three went on to solo careers. Jimmie Dale became known for his haunting voice and great songs, Joe Ely became known as a show-stopping rabble-rouser with great songs. Butch became known as a solid Texas troubadour with great songs...and the guy who gave Jimmie Dale and Joe half of their great songs too!

They all did so well as solo artists, that their "died before it's time" band became a legend. The band with three solid leads and great songs that no one ever heard. They all did so well they got to do what a lot of folks who look back at their past never get to. They got to reform the band. On their own terms. Just for fun and to do when they wanted in between continuing their solo stuff. They got their cake and got to eat it too.

Here's the Flatlanders doing a newer song they all wrote together. I say newer because it sounds like it could've been on any bar jukebox in the late 50's-early 60's helping someone get drunk.

That's Joe Ely on your left, Jimmie Dale Gilmore in the center and our birthday boy Butch Hancock on your right.