Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello have collaborated on a recording of Woody Guthrie’s “Old Man Trump.”
I wrote about “Old Man Trump” and the bigotry it denounces here, back in January; but I didn’t know about this recording until yesterday, when my friend David Goddy sent along an article about it in The Guardian.
(David, by the way, had a hand in the musical development of 1913 Massacre. It was David who directed me and Ken to Frank Christian, who wrote and performed the soundtrack for our film.)
Will Kaufman, who discovered the Trump song among Woody’s papers, says “Woody is speaking to us from beyond the grave now.”
I don’t know about all that, but I figure David shared the song with me because “Old Man Trump” is a song from 1950 that addresses what’s going on today. It’s sort of a 2016 postscript to 1913 Massacre: a song that pushes back hard against greedy bosses who push people around, decide who’s in and who’s out, prey on people’s suspicions and stir up hate.
Maybe this new recording will help people push as hard against the son as Woody pushed against the father.
https://soundcloud.com/firebrand-records/old-man-trump/s-5AJhI