FIVE FACTS ABOUT WOODY GUTHRIE AND ONE ABOUT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Many of you know by now that my current Battle of the Bands pits Woody Guthrie against Bruce Springsteen on This Land Is Your Land, which Guthrie wrote in 1940.

To see the BOTB post and vote for Guthrie or Springsteen, please click HERE.

While we wait for the results on Nov. 21 (I already know the results; Bruce is getting the butt kicking of his life), I'll tell you five facts about Guthrie (source: Wikipedia), and one about Springsteen (source: Cherdo's story).

Five facts about Woody Guthrie:

1. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. 
2. When Woody was fourteen, his mother, Nora, was committed to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane because she had Huntington's Disease. Charley Guthrie, Woody's father, was in Texas, working to pay off debts. Woody and his siblings were on their own in Oklahoma and had to fend for themselves.
3. Fire played a major role in Woody Guthrie's life. When he was seven, his sister Clara died in a coal-oil fire. Later, Woody's father was badly burned in another coal-oil fire. When Woody's daughter Cathy was four, she died in a fire that was a freak accident. Later in Woody's life, gasoline used to start a fire exploded and injured his arm so severely that he could no longer play the guitar.
4. Woody Guthrie was the roamer and rambler as he describes the persona in what is probably the most famous of the hundreds of songs he wrote, This Land Is Your Land. He was married and divorced three times and had eight children. Three of the children survive. 
5. In 1956, Guthrie had to be hospitalized because he had Huntington's Disease--a hereditary illness. Two of his daughters from his first marriage died from Huntington's. One son and two daughters died too young to know if they had Huntington's. Woody Guthrie died in 1967 at the age of 55. His most faithful visitors during his eleven-year hospitalization were his second wife; some of his children, including Arlo Guthrie, who is a well-known singer and songwriter in his own right; and 19-year-old Bob Dylan.

Woody Guthrie in 1943

Now, one fact about Bruce Springsteen:

My good friend Cherdo, who blogs at Cherdo on the Flipside, is in love with Bruce Springsteen and once figured out where his house was. On a dare, she went toward the front door to knock and was intercepted by security.

I'm sorry Bruce didn't come out to meet you, Cherdo.

Bruce Springsteen in 1973

Today, I ask a variety of singers to serenade you with This Land Is Your Land. Sing us out, please, gang.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug