How 'We Shall Overcome' changed America

Pete Seeger, troubadour of the folk music period, "We Shall Overcome"

Carol Forsloff - As the United States struggles with its racist past and the memories of the march on Selma, Alabama that illustrated the harsh realities of segregation, the song "We Shall Overcome" reminds us of how music helped change the country and shape new attitudes.  Can this happen again?


Demonstrations in the 1960's often had musicians who championed freedom and civil rights.  Woody Guthrie's music about the condition of the poor and Pete Seeger's musical anthems drove much of the folk music of the day.
Folk music was created to arouse feelings, emotions in people according to the author of a book called ,“Reds, Whites, and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States”in which"We Shall Overcome"  is an example of how music relates events.

The book examines the song itself as it came originally from a church hymn in 1901, then was incorporated as part of the labor movement of the 1930's and 1940's.

The American Revolution became “Yankee Doodle,” while abolitionists gather together with African Americans over spirituals.  Some of the musical presentations had what we consider now classics such as as “ Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” 

Modern times has been encapsulated in American folk music as well, "We Shall Overcome," identified with the civil rights movements of the 1960's. 

The 21st century has its movements and its historical events as well,including the recent oil spill in the Gulf and Hurricane Katrina along with other disasters and special issues. 

But the song of Woody Guthrie,as it is sung all over the country, recorded by Arlo Gutrie, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and a host of other musicians,  came out of the struggles of the depression and spoke of the wonders of America, that continues to be thought about today.  Who knows where the anthems might lead, but "This Land Is Your Land" is considered by folk music connoisseurs a binding one that was used as the anthem to unite all Americans.

These days folks seldom hear the old anthems, and there are few that people sing together that relate contemporary concerns.  And Guthrie's song about America does not include Alaska and Hawaii, both states admitted to the Union years after he created the famous folk anthem.

There were songs to unify the country and make Americans proud, like Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," that has been sung and recorded by both folk and contemporary musicians.

According to the book, written by UCLA sociologist William Roy, "We Shall Overcome" became alive again with Reverend Martin Luther King and the movement of civil rights that sprang up in the 1950's with sit-ins and demonstrations and reached its zenith as civil rights legislation became enacted for both women and minorities in 1964.  It became the anthem for that period.

"We Shall Overcome" has been identified with the song ever since.

Roy's chronicles the song and its mission and also looks at the evolution of folk music in the relating of events connected with people's feelings.People even associate certain music with certain events, as they do with "We Shall Overcome."

Roy examines the course of folk music's history and how one movement or another was highlighted by certain songs.Indeed, the book indicates how the actual news of the day was chronicled by this special music.

In an interview at the University of South Carolina, Roy, a professor of sociology and chair of UCLA’s sociology department when he wrote the book, said “Doing music —especially in racially mixed groups — became an act of defiance against segregation.”  The song still manages to bring tears to the eyes of the sociologist who joined the civil rights movement as an undergraduate in the ’60s at Atlanta’s Emory University. “It’s a powerful reminder of participating in history, of making a difference,” he said. 

Roy explains,however, the first people to actually use the term "folk music"identified it with their own and were of European extraction.  Out of the intermingling of sounds of English music, the Appalachian form was born again in ballads of “Barbara Allen.”

Perhaps it is a time for new beginnings, as many people believe might help people understand, especially given the racial incidents of the past year, the riots in Ferguson and the demonstrations that followed as well as the worries about war on the horizon, as President Obama and the Republicans in Congress square off over a deal with Iran that some say could prevent war.

Where is the anthem that can illustrate the feelings of today and the collective wish of peace and brotherhood?  Or shall it remain the music of the past brought back again, for people to use when they march together for the sake of man's peace and brotherhood once more.

Woody Guthrie still musically relevant

Woody Guthrie

Carol Forsloff -  An Indie film called "Hobo with a Shotgun," shows an angry man with a shotgun as its message, but the contemporary hobo is neither a romantic hero nor sadistic bum but likely your neighbor's son or the street person of Guthrie's "Hobo's Lullaby." Woody Guthrie, music troubadour of the Great Depression remains musically relevant.

Even as the economic downturn that took the country down from 2008 to a slow recovery, it left thousands of ordinary young men without work.  Many still struggle to find full-time jobs.  The recovery has been long and lasting even longer for certain people whose work has either been down-sized or diminished as technology has replaced many jobs.

Young adults still live with their parents, as many did in the Depression years.  During that time young men rode the rails in search of work or just to find a place to call home.  Woody Guthrie identified with these stresses and wrote about them as he too rode the rails, writing and singing and continuing to express the feelings of his generation.

But this generation might also find themselves in the words and music of a man whose own personal miseries might be seen as reflecting those of others who still sit around campfires, but these on the outside of cities, as some hold signs looking for work.  

Still with commercial travel and train routes reduced but with ridership increased, the opportunities for catching a ride on the rails is not like it was in those days the Great Depression depicts as part of the lifestyle.  These days young people are more apt to find their ways to that somewhere better by car, hitchhiking along the road or finding a willing trucker to take them along for the ride.

But the modern hobo has a language and culture, in many ways different than the past.  At the same time the notion of banding in a brotherhood of sorts still remains.  Gizmodo tells us there is even a hobo code, with symbols  sent by electronic means about places to use wireless communication or find free fuel for cars.  The Modern Hobo Code  is said to have been put together by Rob Cockerham.

The Modern Hobo Code is defined by its creators as "a system of symbols drawn to aid one's fellow vagabonds and make life on the streets a bit more comfortable. The only trouble is that it didn't really take modern technologies into consideration much—until now.

The new "e-way" of communication allows young hobos to learn where jobs are, places to stay, and what areas to avoid, as opposed to the old methods of networks by rumors and stories that advanced the life as desirable with all its adventures and fun.  The life of the hobo of history meant having a trade to get by, a talent to sell, and a network of people who could provide work in exchange for some money or food.  According to hobo history,  many of the 500 or so a day hobos prior to World War II entered the service, got the G.I. bill and became settled in towns and cities across the country.  They were often aided by rural folk, many of whom had family members who took to survival by riding the rails.

The life was harsh, the independence, however, part of the narrative too:

"I be Hobo, I be FREE

So the love of freedom and the wonder or wanderlust of the Hobo as led them to explore the places the rest of the world did not go and often did not want to go, but also help them to understand real freedom.

"I did no justice to the Hobo, and I am just a traveler without a home. I appreciate their free spirit, but also understand the loneliness, and possibly the life of a Hobo with no future. There are lot of Hoboes in the world that neither can return to their homes, do not remember how to return home, and when they do return, find they must leave for the road calls, and they only feel complete when they are traveling."

Today's hobo is a different sort, a young person who gets caught up in drugs, human trafficking and living in cities where police and the populace move the street folks along, in some areas violently.  The average homeless person is now a child with an average age of nine, many of whom grow up without stability and get lost on the streets.  Others take to the streets because there is nothing else, according to a Stanford study in 2003, and get involved in drugs or become victims of human trafficking schemes.

The present-day hobo is not the same as great grandfather was years ago, but likely a lost and lonely young man and woman with simply nowhere else to go but the roads and the streets of our cities.  He or she, or the child you see, is the hobo of Arlo Guthrie's lullaby.  Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie, whose music painted a picture of America's plight, as Arlo Guthrie's song "Hobo's Lullaby" captures it still, a reflection of his father's musical relevance.

Leadbelly's music continues to span the globe with harmony

Carol Forsloff --The contributions made by African-Americans to American music cannot be overstated. Many of the rich jazz, gospel and blues songs enjoyed around the world were originally composed and performed by African-American musicians. One of the leaders of that standard folk blues music was that of Leadbelly.

Leadbelly, born Huddie Ledbetter, was a poor man who had a hard scrabble life that led him to the back roads of women, alcohol and jail. Nevertheless, he managed to climb out of the abyss of bad living to achieve a form of greatness with his music. He was discovered by a publishing group and ended up becoming immortalized by the type of music he performed and the accolades he received for his simple songs that touch the heart of America.

While present America labors over racial conflicts in politics, it is music that spans the globe and seems to eliminate those differences that are superficial. When the Leadbelly was singing, so was Woody Guthrie.   They became friends and respected the music of each other. They were part of that tradition of musicians who composed music about ordinary events and ordinary people in simple ways. Leadbelly had the knack of artfully playing the 12 string guitar, which became an ongoing symbol of his style of music. Guthrie was primarily a composer of 3 to 4 chords songs done with simple strums. But both men were able to reach millions of people at the time they performed and continue to with rich and beautiful music that endures.

Leadbelly composed music such as Irene Good Night   and The Midnight Special,  long- held favorites by people who enjoy singing around campfires and celebrating music  as a community.   Another one of his favorite famous songs is the song, Cotton Fields. Although he is known for blues songs, he went beyond this  genre to perform what are now American music standards and in reality music standards across the world.   His contribution to music therefore surpasses just those simple strains of his songs but a harmony to unite hearts everywhere.

The many lives and traditions of Bob Dylan who remains forever young

[caption id="attachment_15218" align="alignleft" width="300"] Bob Dylan and Joan Baez[/caption]

When some folks think of Bob Dylan, they think of protest music, of Joan Baez,  and his early romances; but his is the music that will endure, like Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and even Stephen Foster.  That's because he wrote of the human experience, both good and bad, and in ways that will endure.  That includes one of his most beautiful songs, "Forever Young."

Dylan was known as a songwriter as well as a performer.  His songs were performed by many folk musicians of the day, often publicly, as these were the days before the copyright issues came into prominence.  He appeared at a time when music infused the social conscience of the nation, when singers presented music with a multitude of verses in the story form of old.  Dylan was that type of writer and that type of entertainer.

When Dylan crossed over into the world of the electrified instruments, the folk music world was shaken.  When he moved into the born-again world of Christians, folks wondered what had happened to the long-haired protestor and vagabond king.  When Joan Baez sang of her great love, in somewhat hidden ways, in words of her own creation, those who had followed both of these great musicians knew she wrote and sang of Bob Dylan.  She too remains active in both live concerts and recording, at age 71 just a few months older than her old friend Dylan.

I heard him sing on a sunny day in Hawaii.  He and I are of the same age, both of us born in 1941,  the same kind of folks who move through life and all its changes.  He is now an old man too, but his life will continue on with its great music in ways many of us will long remember.  Perhaps he will become part of the greatest of our musicians in the mind of others, as Woody Guthrie's music has passed through decades and continues to be "This Land is My Land" in its message to the people he wrote for and about.

Dylan continues to write and record music,  although he as he is moved from boy wonder to a music sage, he has lost much of his audience as time has moved along.    He continues to stay on the circuit, and as one concert site declares:  "The Never Ending Tour is the popular name for Bob Dylan's endless touring schedule since June 7, 1988."

For those of us who remember, and those who discover him now, Dylan is, and will always be, as he wrote himself, "Forever Young."  The song is done here by this old folksinger,  just as it was done by others, in its entirety because the message must remain whole,  as a journalistic presentation, to honor the man and his music.  The whole of the message asks us again to remember our youth and the hopes we had for every tomorrow  and to remind people that Dylan is a national treasure for what he has brought to us with his music and what will likely become part of his legend long after he has gone.

Life and Death in a Hobo's Lullaby

[caption id="attachment_14858" align="alignleft" width="262"] Grandpa in WWI, Europe[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - Every day someone dies alone.  Many of these people live on the streets of America.  Some are found in lonely apartments behind shades that hide the days of sorrow.   Some were men who served in battle, never known by families until long after they had died.

In 2005 it was estimated nearly 150,000 veterans were homeless.  Those numbers have likely increased due to the problems of poverty.  In 2009 it was estimated that 6.3 percent had incomes below the poverty level, as concerned folks remind us.

Some 1800 veterans die in Veterans Hospitals each day.   To help some of these lonely survivors, there are volunteers who stay with the dying when family members are unknown or cannot help.

Old family albums hold many stories of those veterans who lived and died, some whose memory faded as their clothes that covered bodies long since tired and unable to do the things that youth enjoys.

For these men, and women too, who served us all, who remain forgotten memories in family albums, some that are cast aside by those who never knew the value of those album contents, this song and video is a reminder of the value of a single life, something that connects us all.