Em 2012,

O centenário de Woodie Guthrie

No New York Times, uma desenvolvida peça dá conta do preparativos no Estado de Oklahoma pra a celebração do centenário do nascimento de Woodie Guthrie, natural daquele Estado dos EUA e que terão seu ponto alto com uma grande exposição qie beneficia da compra por uma fundação privada de um vasto espólio assim descrito: «The archive includes the astonishing creative output of Guthrie during his 55 years. There are scores of notebooks and diaries written in his precise handwriting and illustrated with cartoons, watercolors, stickers and clippings; hundreds of letters; 581 artworks; a half-dozen scrapbooks; unpublished short stories, novels and essays; as well as the lyrics to the 3,000 or more songs he scribbled on scraps of paper, gift wrap, napkins, paper bags and place mats. Much of the material has rarely or never been seen in public, including the lyrics to most of the songs. Guthrie could not write musical notation, so the melodies have been lost.

The foundation, which paid $3 million for the archives, is planning a kickoff celebration on March 10, with a conference in conjunction with the University of Tulsa and a concert sponsored by the Grammy Museum featuring his son Arlo Guthrie and other musicians. Although the collection won’t be transferred until 2013, preparations for its arrival are already in motion. Construction workers are clearing out piles of red brick and wire mesh from the loading dock in the northeast end of the old Tulsa Paper Company building, in the Brady District of the city, where the planned Guthrie Center is taking shape. The center is part of an ambitious plan to revitalize the downtown arts community. »

A watercolor and a typed lyric sheet in a 1952 notebook,
part of a rich trove of personal material that
makes up the Guthrie archives.

Guthrie's hometown, Okemah, Okla., did not honor
him until lately: today the town has a statue,
above, and an annual festival

As celebrações do centenario inluirão naturalmente diversos concertos em que participará também Jonatha Brooke que, em 2008, com músicas suas, editou um disco - Works - só com canções de Woodie Guthrie.

Madonna on the Curb

JONATHA'S NOTE:

Funny how a propos this one still is today, even though Woody wrote the lyric in 1939. We're still traipsing around the world trying to tell everyone else how to run their countries, and we can't even take care of our own. There's also a pared down version of this song on the album "Songs for Tibet" ? to benefit the Art of Peace Foundation.

LYRICS:

On the curb of a city pavement, by the ash and garbage cans.

In the stench of rolling thunder of motor trucks and vans,

There sits a little lady with brave but troubled eyes,

And in her arms a baby that cries and cries and cries.

She cannot be more than three, but the years go fast in the slums,

And hard on the pangs of winter's cold, the pitiless summer comes.

The wails of sickly children she knows, she understands,

The pangs of puny bodies, the clutch of small hot hands.

The deadly blaze of August that turns men faint and mad,

She quiets the peevish urchins by telling of dreams she had.

Of heaven with its marble stairs, and ice and singing fans.

And God in white, so friendly there, just like the drug store man.

On the curb of a city pavement by the ash and garbage cans.

In the stench of rolling thunder of motor trucks and vans,

There sits a little lady with brave but troubled eyes,

And in her arms a baby that cries and cries and cries.

So when you're giving millions to Belgian Pole, and Serb,

Remember my beautiful lady, MADONNA ON THE CURB