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Bezig met laden... This Land that I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems (2013)door John Shaw
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Near the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II, a homeless Dust Bowl refugee named Woody Guthrie originally drafted "This Land Is Your Land" as an anthem that encompassed the tough realities of those dark times--and as a rebuttal to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." But the song that Guthrie despised had its own complexities. Irving Berlin had risen from homelessness before becoming America's most successful songwriter, and penned his song partly in response to Hitler's rise overseas. In This Land That I Love, music-writer and composer John Shaw writes the dual biography of these beloved American songs, at the same time shedding new light on our patriotic musical heritage, from "Yankee Doodle" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" to Martin Luther King's quotation of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. Delving into the deeper history of war songs, minstrelsy, ragtime, country music, folk music, and African American spirituals, Shaw unearths a rich vein of half-forgotten patriotic and musical traditions. With the aid of new archival research, he uncovers new details about the songs' composition, including a never-before-printed verse for "This Land Is Your Land." The result is a fascinating narrative that refracts and re-envisions America's tumultuous history through the prism of two unforgettable anthems. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)782.42The arts Music Vocal music Secular Forms of vocal music Secular songsLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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This book is part biography of the authors, part history of the songs, including discussion of their interaction and of their evolution. (For both evolved -- "God Bless America" was a World War I piece that Berlin rewrote prior to World War II, and which Kate Smith then put in a different tempo. "This Land Is Your Land," as Woody originally wrote it down, ended not with "This land was made for you and me" but "God blessed America for me" -- a direct response to his disgust with Berlin's song. Moreover, "This Land" is usually sung in much-softened form, omitting many of Woody's radical lyrics.)
As history, the book strikes me as useful. I don't know beans about Irving Berlin, and I feel as if I learned much that was informative. I do know a lot about Woody Guthrie, and I have a few beefs about what is told here, I have no major disagreements with the broad history. What's more, I think the appendix on the textual history of "This Land Is Your Land" very useful.
I do have to put out a little caution, though: the depiction of Woody just doesn't quite feel right to me. It wasn't just lack of employment that caused Woody to ramble; there was clearly a deep itch in him. He associated with Communists, and was widely called a Communist -- but he wasn't, exactly. It's not that he wasn't left-wing enough; he just wasn't an organization-type guy. He was more like a liberal anarchist. And you probably didn't want him alone with your daughter.... I'm not giving a full or even a good picture of Woody; I just want it clear that I don't think you'll get the full feeling for Woody from this book. Probably not Berlin, either, since there isn't much that describes his deep conservatism.
But those defects can be overcome by reading the biographies (Ed Cray's of Woody, and presumably someone's work on Berlin). For the songs, and their interrelation, I doubt you will ever read better. ( )