The “viral video of the week” features everyone’s childhood friend, Fred Rogers. Symphony of Science’s mash up artist John Boswell put together a remix from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood to create a far-out song featuring the refrain, “Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind.” The video is an official production of PBS Digital Studios.
Even if you already thought Mr. Rogers had a psychedelic side, check out the video below.
The YouTube website promises that this video is the first of PBS icon remixes that will be released.
What PBS icon would you like to see remixed? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of the highlights of NBC’s America’s Got Talent show this season so far was this week’s appearance by Andrew De Leon in the Austin, Texas auditions. As De Leon explains below, he has been treated as a bit of an outcast for his Goth looks and had never before sang in front of anyone. When he first opens his mouth to sing, the sound is so unexpected that you do not know whether it is going to be terrible or not. But then you realize that the guy can sing. Check out the video below (after a short commercial).
If you are wondering what he is singing, it is “O mio babbino caro” (“Oh My Beloved Father”) a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918) by Giacomo Puccini. You may read a short description of the context of the aria on NPR’s website, which also has an audio performance by opera singer Amada Squitieri.
As for De Leon’s performance, it is always a nice surprise when someone does something unexpected. As you can see in the video, judges Howie Mandel, Howard Stern and Sharon Osbourne all voted for De Leon to stay in the competition, so we will be seeing him again.
June 27, 2012 Update: After De Leon stumbled a bit from nerves in Las Vegas, the judges voted to eliminate him from the competition. I think the judges blew it. What do you think?
August 22, 2012 Update: He’s back! Howie Mandel brought De Leon back for the Wild Card show, where the judges brought back contestants for a second chance. De Leon delivered, and America voted for him to continue in the competition.
What did you think of Andrew De Leon’s performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Woody Guthrie wrote the classic song “This Land Is Your Land” as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
On October 6, 2008 at Eastern Michigan University, as the U.S. faced a deep financial crisis, one of the country’s biggest living rock stars took the stage to sing on behalf of a United States presidential candidate. As Bruce Springsteen began strumming his guitar, the candidate stood in a tent behind the scenes with his family. The candidate, who would be elected the country’s first African-American president a month later, sang to his children and danced to the chorus of “This Land Is Your Land.”
“This Land Is Your Land,” along with “America the Beautiful,” is an unofficial national anthem. But this song that presidents sing — and that sometimes is sung in response to presidents’ actions — began as something different. It was written by a non-conforming down-and-out American troubadour more than seventy-five years earlier.
The Origins of “This Land Is Your Land”
Before “This Land Is Your Land” became a beloved American standard, it was a protest song. According to Joe Klein’s book Woody Guthrie: A Life, the 27-year-old Woody Guthrie began writing the song in 1940 out of anger and frustration.
At the time, Guthrie was living alone in a run-down hotel called Hanover House near Times Square in New York. He had moved there after wearing out his welcome as a house guest with singer-actor Will Geer and his wife Herta.
Having seen the struggles of common people across America, Guthrie turned his frustration on Irving Berlin’s portrayal of a perfect America in “God Bless America.” Radio disc jockeys repeatedly played Berlin’s song on the radio in the 1930s. In response, Guthrie began writing a song with the sarcastic title “God Blessed America”:
This land is your land, this land is my land, From California to Staten Island, From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, God Blessed America for Me.
Guthrie wrote five more verses ending with the refrain “God Blessed America for me.” And one verse reported on the men and women standing in lines for food.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, By the relief office I saw my people — As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.
Guthrie continued to work on the song. He soon changed “Staten Island” in the refrain to “New York Island.”
The Music of “This Land Is Your Land”
As many folk singers did, Guthrie found the music for his words from existing songs. As he wrote the lyrics, he put them to the tune of the Carter Family’s “Little Darlin’, Pal of Mine.”
The Carter Family, though, did not originally write the music. They took the tune of “Little Darlin’, Pal of Mine” from an African-American spiritual and Baptist hymn they also performed.
The song, “Oh My Lovin’ Brother” is also known as “Hide Me Over in the Rock of Ages” and also “O My Lovin’ Brother When the World’s On Fire.” The hymn, which has been around so long there is no known author, is a warning the end of the world when worldly treasures will pass away and “poor lost sinners will be crying.”
The Creation of the Song We Know
After Guthrie finished “God Blessed America for Me” on February 23, 1940, he put the song away. The song then sat untouched for several years. According to Guthrie’s biographer Joe Klein, Guthrie forgot about the song and did not do anything with it for a long time.
Then, in April 1944, Guthrie began recording a large number of songs for record executive Moe Asch. During the last recording session that month, Guthrie pulled out the old protest song. By now, it had a new tag line and a new title, “This Land Is Your Land.”
The recorded version of “This Land Is Your Land” did not include the verse about the relief office. One may speculate about the reasons, but Guthrie may have made the changes for a nation at war. Or perhaps he no longer saw a need to respond to “God Bless America.”
The artist and the producers did not treat “This Land Is Your Land” any differently than the other songs recorded at the sessions. Asch did not have the money to release any of the songs. So, once again the song sat in limbo. Asch, however, later claimed he recognized something important in the song. (p. 285.)
By December of that year, Guthrie had started using “This Land” as the theme song for his weekly radio show on WNEW. And the Weavers recorded the song too.
Most early recordings by Guthrie and other artists omitted another controversial verse. The verse criticized capitalism and private property. It evoked a time when Guthrie and other Okies were turned away at the California border:
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn’t say nothing; This land was made for you and me.
I like the way this version starts with Woody, and then it transitions into his son Arlo Guthrie and other singers. The song stays understated before becoming a joyous hoedown with John Mellencamp.
Bruce Springsteen has performed “This Land Is Your Land” for decades. He included it on his Live 1975-1985 box set. And he also performed it with Guthrie’s friend Pete Seeger at a special concert in Washington to celebrate Pres. Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
More recently, on February 5, 2017, Lada Gaga included “This Land Is Your Land” in her Super Bowl halftime performance. As the country seemed divided in recent weeks following the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, Lady Gaga began with “God Bless America” and then went into “This Land Is Your Land.” Knowing that Guthrie wrote his song in response to “God Bless America” gives one a deeper understanding of Lady Gaga’s message about America.
Yet, I suspect many people who came of age around the 1960s first heard “This Land Is Your Land” sung by Peter, Paul & Mary. The trio, like many other artists, recognized that the song works best when everyone sings along.
The Legacy of “This Land Is Your Land”
“This Land is Your Land” took on a life of its own. And it no longer belongs to one person. For example, it can be used for discussion and criticized for its failure to connect the land to the Native Americans (although other artists have altered the song to do so). As noted in previous posts on Woody Guthrie, his work and his songs remain relevant today. Like Guthrie’s other songs, his most famous and timeless song, “This Land Is Your Land,” remains relevant too.
If Woody Guthrie had done nothing else besides write “This Land Is Your Land,” we would still honor him. “This Land Is Your Land” is the first song you think of when you think of the singer-songwriter. It is the song that ends every Guthrie tribute show. “This Land Is Your Land” is the song that David Carradine sings on top of a box car in the final scene of the Guthrie bio-pic Bound for Glory (1976). Also, it is the first song listed in Guthrie’s Wikipedia entry.
Additionally, “This Land Is Your Land” is the first Guthrie song you learned in school. And it is the song that Presidents dance to.
It all started with a relatively unknown drifter in the 1940s venting his anger and frustration in his lonely fleabag room. In that room, thinking about what he had seen traveling from California to the New York Island, Woody Guthrie wrote one of the country’s most beautiful songs.
{Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie on July 14, 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Centennial too. }
What is your favorite version of “This Land is Your Land”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via public domain.
If you missed the History Channel’s first showing of Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, make sure to catch it in another showing or on-demand or on video or online. The three-part miniseries, which also features an excellent almost unrecognizable performance by Tom Berenger, tells a compelling American story. Like the best miniseries, it may take you awhile to get drawn into the story as you get to know the characters in the early going. But I found that by the second episode I could not stop watching and could not wait for the third chapter.
Chimesfreedom has discussed the use of violence in movies, and one of the impressive aspects of Hatfields & McCoys is that it tells a violent story in a realistic way. Unlike many movies, the miniseries — directed by Kevin Reynolds and written by Ted Mann and Ronald Parker — portrays the tragic consequences of violence without ever manipulating the viewer into rooting for people to be killed.
I was not alone in enjoying the miniseries, which became the second-most watched entertainment program on basic cable ever (first is last year’s MTV Video Music Awards). There are a number of theories about why the miniseries did so well, including the attraction of a big-name star like Kevin Costner. But at least part of the reason is that the series is a compelling human historical story done well.
How accurate is the miniseries? Various historians indicate that the miniseries got a lot of the story right, with some adjustments for dramatic license. For example, some note that the feud had a lot to do with economics because the Hatfields were doing so well with their lumber business while the McCoys were struggling. The miniseries hints at that aspect with a few scenes devoted to the dispute over land that was part of the Hatfield’s lumber business, but much of the miniseries focuses on the Civil War and romantic roots of the feud. One big difference from the true story is that the movie was not filmed in West Virginia and Kentucky but in Romania, which had more undeveloped wild space. Also, some descendants of the Hatfields and McCoys have pointed out changes to the real story. Still, the miniseries is an excellent combination of history, fine acting, and a compelling story. Below is a short summary of the real-life story, featuring images of the real-life main characters.
Conclusion? If you like history, family drama, Civil War era stories, and have a little patience to get wrapped up in a compelling story, check out the Hatfields & McCoys. Why do you think Hatfields & McCoys was such a hit? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Bernie (2011), which is now in theaters, is hard to characterize. Is it a dark comedy, a dramatic take on a true-life crime, a southern set piece, a documentary, a mockumentary, or something else? Maybe it is a little of each.
In the film, Jack Black plays Bernie Tiede, an odd mortician who is beloved by many in the community of Carthage, Texas for his kindness to the bereaved and his respect for the recently departed. Eventually, he becomes close to an elderly millionaire widow played by Shirley MacLaine. When the widow is murdered, none of the local townspeople can believe when Bernie is accused of the murder.
The movie is based on a real-life story that appeared in Texas Monthly magazine. The film features interviews with real townspeople (mixed in with some interviews with actors playing people of the town). Some viewers may find the generous use of such interviews distracting, but Director Richard Linklater sees much of the story in the way that the townspeople reacted to Bernie. Linklater, who is from East Texas himself, has said that he tried to be respectful of the citizens of the town, noting that he sees something human in their desire to see Bernie acquitted simply because they liked him.
The movie is an odd gem, and it is not for everyone. What made the movie for me was the understated acting by actors who usually go over-the-top in other roles. Jack Black gives a subdued performance where you almost expect him to break character, much like watching Will Ferrell before he loses control. While I wish the film went a little deeper into Bernie’s character and his past, Black gives a three-dimensional performance of a character that could have easily drifted into a one-line joke. Similarly, Matthew McConaughey gives one of his most understated performances too, and Shirley MacLaine shows again how she can portray more emotion with her eyes and a few words than most actors can in a talky leading role.
If you see the film, make sure to stick around for the credits. You get to see the real Bernie along with some additional interviews. If you are interested in more information about the true story, check out this video (warning: If you have not seen the film, there are spoilers.)
Conclusion? Bernie is not for everyone, but a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised by the unusual little movie. If you are looking for something quirky and entertaining, even if it is not too deep and does not have many plot surprises, you should check out Bernie in theaters, or maybe just wait for it to come out on DVD.
Bonus Music Information: If while watching the movie you recognize the music playing in the background — during the murder and near the end of the film — and wonder what it is, you might know it from Bach. Or you might know it from Paul Simon. The music is the hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded,” which ended up in the music of Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” Perhaps Linklater chose the tune in an attempt to subconsciously connect the story’s tragic elements to something unique about America. Check out our post on the history of the song.
Bonus Reviews Because Why Should You Believe Me? Bernie has a very respectable Rotten Tomatoes rating of 89% from critics and 87% from viewers. Jonathan Rossenbaum calls the movie a “masterpiece.” Tom Long of The Detroit News is a little more low key, calling the film “a pleasant little movie.” Saportareport says the film is the best of Jack Black’s career so far. The real Bernie Tiede seems satisfied with the movie, or at least with the fact that he got to meet Jack Black. What did you think of Bernie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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