Article-culture-music: Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

Guthrie was an American folk musician best known for the song “This Land Is Your Land.” During the Great Depression of the 1930s, he lived a hobo’s life, traveling with his guitar and harmonica. Guthrie wrote or adapted more than 1,000 songs, often performing them at protest rallies, and became a successful radio personality and a hero to protest singers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. After his death, his daughter approached what singer to record songs with lyrics that Guthrie had written? More… Discuss

Woody Guthrie tribute – House of the rising sun

Kanaal van JeromeVanov

Joan Baez – Where Have All The Flowers Gone

[youtube.com/watch?v=MfUGjoSxK_M]

 

Joan Baez－Famous Blue Raincoat

[youtube.com/watch?v=I5uCE8wTlRs]

“Famous Blue Raincoat“

It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.
I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record. Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear? Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane’s awake —

She sends her regards.

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear —

Sincerely, L. Cohen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia“Famous Blue Raincoat” is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, Songs of Love and Hate, released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter (although many of the lines are written in amphibrachs). The lyric tells the story of a love triangle between the speaker, a woman named Jane, and the male addressee, who is identified only briefly as “my brother, my killer.”
The lyrics contain references to the German love song “Lili Marlene,” to Scientology, and to Clinton Street. Cohen lived on Clinton Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s when it was a lively Latino area.^[1]In the 1999 book, The Complete Guide to the Music of Leonard Cohen, the authors comment that Cohen’s question, “Did you ever go clear?”, in the song, is a reference to the Scientology state of “Clear“.^[2] Cohen was very briefly a member of the Church of Scientology, which he had heard was a “good place to meet women.” ^[3][4]

In the liner notes to 1975’s The Best of Leonard Cohen, which includes the song, he mentions that the famous blue raincoat to which he refers actually belonged to him, and not someone else:

I had a good raincoat then, a Burberry I got in London in 1959. Elizabeth thought I looked like a spider in it. That was probably why she wouldn’t go to Greece with me. It hung more heroically when I took out the lining, and achieved glory when the frayed sleeves were repaired with a little leather. Things were clear. I knew how to dress in those days. It was stolen from Marianne’s loft in New York sometime during the early seventies. I wasn’t wearing it very much toward the end.

Ron Cornelius played guitar on Songs of Love and Hate and was Cohen’s band leader for several years. He told Songfacts: “We played that song a lot before it ever went to tape. We knew it was going to be big. We could see what the crowd did – you play the Royal Albert Hall, the crowd goes crazy, and you’re really saying something there. If I had to pick a favorite from the album, it would probably be ‘Famous Blue Raincoat.'” ^[5]

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• Famous Blue Raincoat and Black Hat
• Leonard Cohen Depicted In Famous Blue Raincoat

Democracy Now: Obit for Joan Baez’s Mother

Democracy Now: Obit for Joan Baez’s Mother (click to access report on Democracy Now)

Joan Baez – Farewell Angelina

JOAN BAEZ ~ I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine ~ Remember Bob Dylan? (forget not your youth heroes!)

 

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold.

“Arise, arise”, he cried so loud
With a voice without restraint
“Come out ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you’re not alone”.

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried.
Read more (very interesting comment made regarding the history and meaning of the songs       → Here… 

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• Joan does a better Dylan than Dylan (justfortherecords.wordpress.com)

 

Bob Dylan sings ‘I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine’s’

[youtube.com/watch?v=ql24ZyLHu24]

“I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” is a song by Bob Dylan that was originally released on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. It was recorded at the first John Wesley Harding session on October 17, 1967.^[1] It has been covered by many artists, including Joan Baez, Vic Chesnutt, John Doe, Thea Gilmore, Adam Selzer and Dirty Projectors.^[2] In addition, Jimi Hendrix at one point intended to cover this song, but felt it was too personal to Dylan and instead covered a different song from the album, “All Along the Watchtower“.^[3]

“I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” is a pensive ballad.^[4] Like the rest of the John Wesley Harding album, the music of “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” uses spare, unobtrusive musical accompaniment.^[4] The primary instruments are an acoustic guitar and drums.^[4] The lyrics describe a dream that is enigmatic and subject to interpretation.^[4] However, the lyrics do convey a deeply felt sense of guilt, as well as a vision of faith, righteousness, fear and betrayal.^[4][5] The sense of guilt is particularly prevalent in the final verse:^[4]

“I dreamed I saw St. Augustine

Alive, with fiery breath

And I dreamed I was amongst the ones that put him out to death

Oh, I awoke in anger, so alone and terrified

I put my fingers against the glass

And bowed my head and cried.”

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Dreamed_I_Saw_St._Augustine)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Bob Dylan and Patti Smith (musicofourheart.wordpress.com)

JOAN BAEZ ~ I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine ~

[youtube.com/watch?v=dKlmc8HpkI4]
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (lyrics and  music  by Bob Dylan)

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold.

“Arise, arise”, he cried so loud
With a voice without restraint
“Come out ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint

No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you’re not alone”.

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried.

Related articles

• Joan Baez “We Shall Overcome” (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Joan Baez “House Of The Rising Sun” (pinkbananaworld.com)