1913 MASSACRE

Created on 06/03/2001
Latest update on 21/03/2024

Artist: Woody Guthrie
Author: Woody Guthrie
Label: Asch
Year: 1945

Dylan about Woody: "Listening to his songs is learn how to live, how to feel; he was like a guide. I couldn't believe I had never heard of him before." Woody to Dylan: "The words are the important thing. Don't worry about the tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow and you've got a new tune." This tune reminds Aunt Mollie Jackson's version of One Morning In May; see: The Nightingale.

Covers:

1959:

Rambling Jack Elliott

1962:

Bob Dylan [as Song To Woody; same tune, as a tip of the hat and one verse from Woody's Pastures Of Plenty]

1964:

Judy Collins [as Wild Rippling Water]

1964:

Alex Harvey [(UK) as The Michigan Massacre]

1972:

Christy Moore [as Tribute To Woody]

1973:

Arlo Guthrie

1980:

Hans Theessink

2004:

Jules Shear

On Christmas day 1913 in Calumet, Michigan, copper miners on strike had a solidarity gathering with their families when someone shouted "Fire" while the doors appeared to be blocked. Widespread panic caused the death of 73 trampled, among them 59 children. Became a typecase of anti-unionism while it remained bluntly overlooked in most American history books, reason enough for Woody to rephrase the facts more than thirty years later.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
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Arnold Rypens
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info@originals.be

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