Woody Guthrie at 100: The Brooklyn chapter
Jeff Place, chief archivist of the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, declared that Woody Guthrie “was a supernova who came through rapidly, but in the short time he was around he influenced everything after.” Given the coincidence of Guthrie’s 100th birthday (on the 14th last month) with the current political and economic stalemate, his musical legacy may be like the welcome return of a heavenly body.
Except for his World War II service, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie lived in the New York-New Jersey area from 1940 until his death at the age of 55 in 1967, more than half that time in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, he spent most of his last years at Brooklyn State Hospital (now called Kingsboro Psychiatric Center) in East Flatbush, incapacitated by the genetic, neurological disorder Huntington’s chorea.
Famed as the Okie troubadour of “This Land is Your Land” and the author of the autobiographical novel “Bound for Glory,” Guthrie was rendered immobile and wordless in the end. In fact, his physical and mental decline lasted much longer than the decade in which he produced an incredible 3,000 songs. The few recorded include “Union Maid,” “Do Re Mi,” Pretty Boy Floyd,” “The Ludlow Massacre,” “The Sinking of the Reuben James,” and “Pastures of Plenty.” Another irony: Though not a Party member, the Communist-inspired Guthrie, unlike his comrade-in-song Pete Seeger, was never blacklisted because by the 1950’s the FBI deemed him too ill to be dangerous.