The Wake

In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land is your Land” in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Berlin’s standard song romanticized a false concept of America: “Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free, let us all be grateful for a land so fair.” Even to this day, Americans sing this song as one of many anthems of the nation—its ideas are what created America. However, Berlin’s song unintentionally introduced the paradox of American freedom: in order to be free in America, one must sacrifice his or her freedom. Guthrie challenged Berlin and America by simply demanding that “this land was made for you and me.” In Guthrie’s eyes, Berlin‘s “allegiance” and gratitude toward American freedom as a payment to a landlord. Moreover, swearing allegiance—especially to a land where equality did not exist—negated freedom. “This Land is your Land” made plain that no American was free and that America should be the land of the people. Guthrie’s words are still true today.

Although Guthrie preceded the social change movement that occurred in America following World War II, he was one of its initiators. Guthrie was like Thomas Paine in flannel and denim with a guitar—his words gave way to change. From Guthrie came the Beats, who were writers, musicians and social-thinkers that did not “swear allegiance to a land that‘s free.”

In the early 1960s, Bob Dylan first heard Woody Guthrie’s etched rotating record sound in a Minneapolis apartment. Dylan took the record and left the Midwest to join Guthrie on the East coast over “a thousand miles from his home.” From Guthrie came Dylan.

Before The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Dylan made his way in New York City by recycling Woody Guthrie tunes, old folk traditionals and blues songs. Though these songs were not his own, they were American songs—songs of the working class. Dylan sang of factories closing on the iron range to old antebellum slave hymns to men traveling an unknown country. His songs told the stories of a struggling America at a time when America was supposedly booming. Dylan embodied this struggling America when he first traveled to New York. His red Minnesotan cheeks and plain Midwestern looks with his howling dry voice and pounding guitar strums made the songs he played his own. Dylan’ songs reflected the counter culture of the time. Allen Ginsberg had written “Howl,” Lawrence Ferlinghetti had written “I am Waiting” and Jack Kerouac had written On the Road. The Civil Rights Movement was beginning and the Cuban Revolution had defeated American capitalism—Woody Guthrie’s songs were moving from the fringe of society to the mainstream. Dylan saw this and after his mildly successful self-titled Bob Dylan album, he put out The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin’. These albums solidified Guthrie, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Kerouac and Dylan in the contemporary American discourse of the 1960s. Specifically, America’s youth was awakened by these writers’ words.

Among countless other songs, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “With God on Our Side” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” loudly attack the institution of America with quiet language. The lyric “a hard rain’s a-gonna fall” meant that oppressed Americans were going to challenge their country. Though Dylan states to this day that his songs were not political, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” revealed to America an “ocean” full of hardships. However, Dylan would change towards the end of the ’60s and his radical voice calmed.

Since the 1960s and Bob Dylan, America has only had short breaths of social-consciousness blown into its mainstream culture. Bruce Springsteen revived Guthrie and Dylan’s voice of the working class in the mid ’70s, ’80s and even to this day with songs such as “The River,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” and “Devils and Dust.” Neil Young has also added his voice to comment on American culture throughout his career. Yet, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young are the last two voices of change in a once highly politicized American popular culture. Some would argue that Bono and U2 have brought politics back into the mainstream; however their songs have not affected the whole of a generation like Bob Dylan’s.

U2 is not to blame. The problem lies in the youth of America wanting their popular music to indulge self-loathing and mindless lyrics. The icons of today’s youth are 50 Cent, Green Day and Ashley Simpson. Their songs seek to affirm the same allegiance that Berlin’s “God Bless America” did by not questioning the country’s institution. Contemporary music is easy and mass produced, which has disarmed the youth’s historical ability to produce change.

However, in the non-mainstream American culture some groups are echoing Guthrie and Dylan’s voices. Artists such as Ani DiFranco, Connor Oberst and Mason Jennings are singing for change, but America’s popular culture is not letting their voices be heard. Both Jennings’ “United States Global Empire” and Oberst’s “When the President Talks to God” attack the U.S. government and specifically George W. Bush. Although, neither are chart toppers like Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” because America’s popular culture has turned a deaf ear to change. America’s need for change did not stop in the 1960s. America needs to hear just as many words of revolution now as it did then. Popular American culture needs to hear Guthrie again and leave the familiar and go into the unknown.

Tom McNamara is a Voices columnist and welcomes comments at .