Irony Is Dead

by hilzoy

Yesterday, various bloggers, including Steve Benen at the Monthly, posted a wonderful YouTube video of Pete Seeger singing 'This Land Is Your Land'. I hope you watched it then, since it's no longer available: HBO has taken it down (h/t). If you click the video, you get the following message:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Home Box Office, Inc."

As Steve noted, Seeger included the two "radical" verses, which are often omitted. I think that Seeger et al changed the words somewhat in the performance, but guess what? I can't check. Here's the original version:

As I was walkin' -- I saw a sign there
And that sign said No Trespassin'
But on the other side it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city -- in the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Whatever you might think about No Trespassin' signs generally, it's a bit much to put them on video of a concert put on for the people, to celebrate our new President and our country. But putting them on this song in particular? 

Irony is dead.

Comments

[dm]

Hm...you can watch the whole event on hbo.com here. I didn't catch the verses that Seeger sang. I'll go check it out.

[ral]

The line in the video is "Private Property", not "No Tresspassing."

Alas, Lawrence Lessig is leaving this field and heading east to Harvard. One can only hope that his new project will be even more important.

[Dan]

Please. Irony was brutally murdered over the course of the last year by the Palin candidacy. Every one of her "thanks, but no thanks for that Bridge to Nowhere" proclamations was a kick to Irony's kidneys. Poor thing didn't have a chance.

[ral]

That is not dead which can eternal lie.

Aiiiieeeeee!

[feeling shrill today, it should pass by tomorrow]

[dm]

Seeger's bit is close to the end, probably 9/10 of the way through it (dratted Windows Player with no pause/controls...)

Here's what he sang, to the best of my ability to transcribe:

In the squares of the city, by the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office I saw my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there whistling, 'This land was made for you and me'

A great high wall there, and tried to stop me (?)
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
Had a great big sign there, said 'Private Property'
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me!

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back

-

And I agree with you that it's pretty shitty for HBO to give takedown notices to Youtube. Bah.

[Dan]

Thankfully, from what I read at Politico, HBO only has distribution rights for six months, after which one hopes it will revert to the public domain.

I'm still pissed as all hell that they cut Robison's prayer.

[John Mark Ockerbloom]

Woody did it different ways at different times. The "original version" link above is for the first widely published version, from 1956. The song was originally written in 1940, and if I recall correctly (I can't find the online image now) "private property" is the wording used on that verse in Guthrie's 1940 manuscript.

The earliest known publication of the song is a mimeographed, typed songbook from 1945. That version only has 4 verses, omitting the two "radical" verses Guthrie had originally composed. That version, ironically, is the one that probably most belongs to you and me, since it entered the public domain when its copyright was not renewed. (The professionally published 1956 version was copyrighted and renewed.)

[Jesurgislac]

I'm still pissed as all hell that they cut Robinson's prayer.

At the special request of the Inauguration Committee. Wouldn't have done to have Gene Robinson's prayer more of a hit on Youtube than Rick Warren's.

[russell]

Don't mean to take away from your point, with which I'm in agreement. I'm actually relieved HBO didn't insist on naming rights.

"The HBO Presidential Inauguration Party, featuring Barack Obama, a statue of Lincoln, and a big rectangular pond. And Shakira.".

Kind of like "New Years Rockin' Eve", only with a Secret Service detachment.

But were we to ask Seeger about all of this, he'd probably tell us all to go get ourselves a banjo and sing it for ourselves.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

"This Land" is one of Seeger's signature songs.

PBS runs a documentary on Seeger from time to time, usually around fund-raiser time, that pulls me in every time. A real American icon.

PBS also runs a very good doc on Bob Dylan that shows Seeger and other contemporaries of the folk legened disheartened when Dylan decided to break ranks from them and make a move for the big time.

There is also a scene where Dylan Big-Times Joan Baez, basically casts her aside during a festival performance, I can't remember which. Baez, who would have done anything for Dylan and thought the world of him, was heartbroken and left you heartbroken. Dylan, for all of his great music which can connect so intimately with a listener, comes across as bitingly cold in the doc.

[John Thullen]

Irony's funeral is closed to the general public, but you can purchase Irony T-shirts, coffee mugs, and colorful maps to Irony's graveside on QVC for a modest fee.

All further proceeds from future renditions of "Get Off My Land, It's All My Land" will flow to the Baptist Church and the Carter family estate, from whom Woody Guthrie appropriated the melody.

All of you folks are further enjoined from using the term "folk" to refer to yourselves, your music, your folks, or any number of German cars.

We'll meter the lot of you if we have to.

Small print is available if you can squint hard enough.

[olivia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u4PkFn2NJc&eurl=http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/pete-seeger-this-land-is-your-land.html

So far they haven't taken this viewer's piece down.

[dnfree]

I'm apparently irony-deprived, because I don't understand why irony is dead when "This Land is Your Land" is sung as it was originally intended instead of as the "America the Beautiful" cleaned-up version most people know. It's like when people think "Born in the USA" is a patriotic song. They just aren't paying attention.

And as for the melody, I'm sure the Carter family and the Baptist church have appropriated a few also! Remember our national anthem meloday was a drinking song.

[ThatLeftTurnInABQ]

All of you folks are further enjoined from using the term "folk" to refer to yourselves, your music, your folks, or any number of German cars.

Ein Copyreich, ein folk, ein furore.

[AIMAI]

golf claps for thatleftturninABQ. Dm has the lyrics right, it was the "private property" version not the "no tresspassin'" version. And there is a marvellous interview with Joan Baez in the big Dylan documentary in which she explains that the wonderful song "the hour that my ship comes in" was written in a white hot fury not over social injustice but over the fact that Dylan couldn't get a hotel room that night. And also that she spent the latter half of her protest career explaining to disappointed fans and rebels that "Bob's not coming...he's *never* coming..."

aimai

[Nombrilisme Vide]

Irony's funeral is closed to the general public, but you can purchase Irony T-shirts, coffee mugs, and colorful maps to Irony's graveside on QVC for a modest fee.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd be happier if the funeral tee-shirts had a bit more personal feel to them. Maybe if they were an iron-on.

[jonnybutter]

Irony has been mostly dead for a while. It isn't so hard to kill. All you have to do is be remorseless in your assertion that it doesn't exist, and - poof - it doesn't. The Blob Never Sleeps.

re: Dylan - How could Bob have ended up being in a Victoria's Secret spot lo these many years later if he had stayed all folky and protesty 'n stuff?

[dm]

Text and video of Robinson's prayer.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

aimai: I remember both of those dylan/baez anecdotes. Just love that documentary, although at the end it leaves me feeling melancholy.

re: "Bob's not coming . . . he's *never* coming . . ."

Remember that, too, and Baez's frustration over having to express that sentiment over and over again. Glad though that she seems to have made peace with it.

When you see pictures now of Baez as an elder of folk/activism, it's hard to imagine her as so innocent, wild-eyed and, well, young, as that doc shows. She had what I can only describe as beauty of purity and her younger voice was just heavenly.

That documentary also made me marvel at how Dylan could write some of the stuff he did in an instant.

[liberal japonicus]

In light of what Jes pointed out here and earlier and dm's link, this is rather interesting.

This is not gloating, I can see a chain of decisions that would result in thinking it would be better to not broadcast it, and then doing damage control. Or (much less likely, I admit) they planned it this way. But do think that you will see these sorts of things happening more often because there is less a command and control structure and it can be easy for a group of people to make decisions that are insulated from larger principles. That sort of dynamic, left unchecked, can bring forth the worst tendencies of the left, but I think it is part and parcel with going to less centralized control.

[Gary Farber]

"this is rather interesting."

Your link points to this thread.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

I hope this isn't too OT: I found myself glued to the Inaugural coverage this weekend (when not watching the Eagles flop in the NFL playoffs).

The train ride was cool, especially since it stopped at the Wilmington station I've have ridden from many times. Also nice to see a stop and big turnout in Baltimore, which doesn't seem to get much good press.

Even Animal Planet got into the act, running a show on Presidential Pooches.

LBJ was a huge dog fan. Lady Bird made sure someone broke the news of LBJ's death to his beloved Lucy gently.

On not as lovable a note, can you imagine how the animal-rights groups would react to the photo of LBJ pulling his Beagle up by the ears today? (Having an old Beagle, I know how sensitive their ears are.)

FDR and Fala were inseparable.

Reagan never had much luck with dogs. They showed this one -- can't remember the type -- that was this cute itty-bitty puppie and grew up to be this mammoth dog that terrorized the White House, and a visiting Margaret Thatcher.

[Jesurgislac]

Reagan had a dog that terrorized Margaret Thatcher? Can we give it a medal (posthumously, I suppose)...

[Alex R]

Woody Guthrie's famous quote is appropriate here -- apparently printed on songbooks with the words to his songs: This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.

[janinsanfran]

The German video feed is available here. Enjoy

[hilzoy]

dnfree: "I'm apparently irony-deprived, because I don't understand why irony is dead when "This Land is Your Land" is sung as it was originally intended instead of as the "America the Beautiful" cleaned-up version most people know."

The irony is in taking the video of this song in particular down for infringement of copyright.

[JanieM]

Kind of like the guy who got arrested in New Hampshire a long time ago for taping over the "Live Free or Die" saying on his license plate.

[liberal japonicus]

whoops, thanks Gary.

The link is (I hope) here. If I screwed it up again, it is from Ben Smith of Politico

Obama camp takes blame for gay bishop slight

The Presidential Inauguration Committee is apologizing for the failure to broadcast yesterday's invocation by the gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson.

“We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program. We regret the error in executing this plan – but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event," emails PIC communications director Josh Earnest.

This isn't quite what I remembered, the item I thought I read was less a 'oh I meant to do that' and more a report that the recorded invocation would be broadcast, though I'm not sure if it was a lack of coffee or if this is a subsequent post, but I might not have phrased my comment based on this post.

[Nell]

I'm grateful for being down with the flu; I'm not sure I'd have watched the 'We Are One' concert otherwise.

But I ended up watching it three times, and the YouTube of Pete and Tao and Bruce again and again. I was sobbing and singing along during the first, live showing of 'This Land Is Your Land'.

Even on the first showing, I muted almost all of the schmaltzy actor-readings (jeez-o-peets, couldn't five minutes of that pompous awards-ceremony filler have been cut to show Bishop Robinson's fine prayer?).

But I can never get enough of 'Shout', 'Change is Gonna Come' (Bettye LaVette tore it up) and 'Higher Ground'. And I've been a huge fan of the Boss since he played at my college before he was big, in 1973. He's who invited Pete Seeger, bless his heart.

Scott Horton said that HBO is planning to edit Bishop Robinson's prayer into the DVD version, but the link Horton provides doesn't back that up.

[Gary Farber]

"On not as lovable a note, can you imagine how the animal-rights groups would react to the photo of LBJ pulling his Beagle up by the ears today?"

Indeed.

[Nell]

OT: Is it really possible that we're going to get out of our long national nightmare without any pardons? (aside from the "it's no big crime to shoot a Mexican" commutation today).

On the other hand, Cheney gets to decide what papers from his Fourth Branch office fall under the Presidential Records Act, so there go a lot of documents that would have been the subject of discovery motions in the world of the future...

[JanieM]

Nell -- thanks for clueing me in on who it was to Pete Seeger's right -- I assume that's the "Tao" you mentioned and that it's his grandson.

Do you have "The Seeger Sessions"? Unlike you I haven't been a big Springsteen fan (I'm boringly and narrowly attached to folk music, especially traditional fiddle music of various traditions). But I loved "The Seeger Sessions" -- partly because I have never heard an album where it was more evident that the musicians were just having an incredibly good time playing together.

[hilzoy]

JanieM: I don't normally talk about my various relations. But if you're in Maine, and a folkie, do you know my Dad's cousin? I really like his music.

[Nell]

JanieM: Do you have "The Seeger Sessions"?

Do I! I listen to it several times a week. What you identify is the best thing about it -- the musicians' sheer joy of playing together just flows out and envelops you.

The tour that developed out of the Sessions was really something, I understand. About the only video I've ever downloaded is Bruce and the Sessions band playing Pete Seeger's 'Bring 'em Home' on one of the late night talk shows.

I first saw Tao Rodriguez-Seeger when he filled in for his grandfather (who was ill) in 2001 at the annual protest at Ft. Benning to close the School of the Americas. It was eerie how much he sounded like Pete at times. Folk fan that you are, you might want to check out The Mammals, Tao's folk band (haven't heard them myself, but just passing on enthusiasm from a comment section).

[Hudson]

Jibjab also went through a copyright claim over "This land is your land". According to the EFF press release, the copyright was not renewed in 1973 by the Guthrie estate and the song fell into the public domain.

[JanieM]

Nell: Folk fan that you are, you might want to check out The Mammals, Tao's folk band (haven't heard them myself, but just passing on enthusiasm from a comment section).

Thanks -- I'll do that. :)

[Jeff]

There is also a scene where Dylan Big-Times Joan Baez, basically casts her aside during a festival performance, I can't remember which.

One of the Newport Jazz Festivals, I believe. It was that one or the next one where Seeger was ready to take an axe to Dylan.

[Gary Farber]

July 25, 1965.

Video.

[Gary Farber]

More video.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

"It was that one or the next one where Seeger was ready to take an axe to Dylan."

Yeah, Seeger had little patience for Dylan's self-centeredness and, while I don't believe he ever says it, viewed him as a sell-out.

Don't feel alone, JanieM. If Springsteen comes on the radio, I probably won't change the station but that's about it. "Streets of Philadelphia" makes a great companion piece for the Tom Hanks movie, though, and is very good.

Thanks for the photo, Gary. That is one handsome Beagle.

[Gary Farber]

"Yeah, Seeger had little patience for Dylan's self-centeredness and, while I don't believe he ever says it, viewed him as a sell-out."

Seeger has always said that he was angry because the sound was so bad. And everyone agrees the sound was horrible. I'm more than a little dubious about characterizing the feelings of third parties without direct quotes, or at least unless you heard it first-hand. It's otherwise just spreading rumors, and rumors tend to often be untrue.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Yes, Gary, I should have said Seeger was quite frustrated by Dylan and came across in the documentary as viewing him as a sell-out.