2. It's worth pointing out that Guthrie has long been appropriated and misappropriated by all sorts of musicians and causes.
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3. Guthrie of course was the bard of the Popular Front, which in itself is one reason why his music lends itself to disparate causes.
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4. It's a Cold War mistake to see the Popular Front as simply a charade, it had a genuine element of alliance building and outreach.
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5. So even though Guthrie was a (ssshhh) communist, his music was written to have broad appeal: the popular side of the Popular Front.
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6. The original 1940 version of This Land is Your Land, a response to Berlin's complacent God Bless America very explicitly leftist:
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7. "Was a high wall there that tried to stop me A sign was painted said: Private Property, But on the back side it didn't say nothing"
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8. Part of the success of Guthrie is that even people who didn't share his bracing politics felt the need to claim a stake in art.
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9. Fairly early in their careers, both Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen cast themselves as the heirs to Guthrie.
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10. Meanwhile This Land got watered down until it became exactly what it was written to oppose: a self-satisfied patriotic anthem.
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11. "This Land is Your Land" was sung In 1988, during the Republican National Convention, crowning George H.W. Bush as nominee.
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12. Of course, when Pete Seeger sang This Land in 2008 during Obama's inauguration, he restored the oft-suppressed anti-property verses.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. The singing of This Land in 1988 GOP convention part of a larger Reaganite attempt to claim popular music as conservative patrimony.
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14. Both George Will and Ronald Reagan hailed Springsteen's "Born in the USA" as a patriotic celebration of America.
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