“I’m a communist”: The FBI’s private war on folk music
Some of the biggest names in music history have earned their status by going against the grain. Anyone can spend their time trying to make the best music they can for the meat market, but no one knows what they really want until they are given something that they have never heard before, causing them to go down the rabbit hole and see what else is in the world. That doesn’t always go along with what the government wants, though, and the FBI began to get very sniffy when artists started to make something outside of their comfort zone.
When it came to the charts, most artists didn’t need to be concerned about politics. The days of artists like Louis Armstrong may have had tunes that touched on political material, but there was no place for someone to speak their mind when all everyone wanted was to put on something smooth to serve up in the background of a dinner party.
Woody Guthrie was never into that kind of song craftsmanship, though. He was born and bred in the folk tradition, and that meant defying what he saw was wrong in the world. Although most outsiders’ views on folk music tended to be songs that sounded like safe country songs, hearing Guthrie start singing tracks like ‘This Land Is Your Land’ at the height of World War II led to him getting sought out by the big wigs in Washington.
There was nothing wrong with saying something that constituted free speech, but there was a lot more going on with Guthrie that the FBI considered dangerous. While he kept up his track record for songs about wanting to live in a world where everyone was treated equally, he was quickly put on a list for potentially spreading Communist propaganda through his songs.
The strict attention paid to Guthrie didn’t manage to end until he was physically unable to perform anymore, leaving him confined to a hospital while suffering from ALS. Guthrie hadn’t lost his mind, though, and he did have a few backhanded compliments for the people who were keeping surveillance on him, saying, “This is the freest place in America. You don’t have to worry about me. I can jump up on the table and shout, ‘I’m a communist!’ and all they’ll say is ‘Oh, he’s crazy.’ You try doing that anywhere else in America.”
The FBI may have thought they had won by throwing Guthrie in the societal trash, but that meant that the battle was only just beginning. By the time Guthrie was incapacitated, Bob Dylan had begun taking up his mantle, playing songs like ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ and ‘Masters of War’ in stark defiance of what the lawmakers in Washington, D.C. were trying to do.
It didn’t stop at music, either. Even authors like John Steinbeck had begun going against the grain and writing in Guthrie’s style, trying to advocate for a better world for everyone. While the FBI did take a similar approach when they thought John Lennon could sway an election, there’s a lesson to be found in trying to silence folk music.
As much as people might try to stomp out what they don’t like or don’t understand, there are always going to be those who will keep their faith in whatever they believe in. The government can try their best to silence it, but the songs in Guthrie’s heart have yet to wear out their welcome on people dreaming of something better for America.
