Monday, February 22, 2010

Where I Come From














Like other children, Robert Zimmerman listened to the radio religiously, his interests swinging from blues to country to rock & roll.

He especially enjoyed the sweet sad folk ballads of Woody Guthrie, the "Dust Bowl Troubadour" of the Great Depression era, who frequently displayed the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists" upon the smooth surface of his acoustic guitar.














Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California, learning countless American folk and blues songs along the way. His earliest recordings were made by folklorist Alan Lomax, who collected folk songs for a federal archive of the Library of Congress.













Pete Seeger, an associate of Alan Lomax and a member of the socialist party, performed on the weekly Columbia Broadcast "Where I Come From", where he first met Woodie Guthrie. They became friends and traveled on the road together.












On August 18, 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee led by the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Seeger refused to name names.

"I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this."



Seeger's refusal to testify led to a federal indictment for contempt of Congress, and for several years, he was to keep the federal government apprised of his whereabouts at all times.

In March 1961, he was convicted by a jury for contempt of court and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but in May 1962, his conviction was overturned after the fall of McCarthyism.


Like Guthrie, his banjo carries a message...

"This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."

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