2021-05-13 Stone Hill Farm, Colts Neck, NJ

Scheduled: ??:?? Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Bruce Springsteen accepts the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize. He is recognized for his work continuing Guthrie's legacy with a virtual event. Nora Guthrie presents the award on behalf of the Woody Guthrie Center in an event live-streamed for Woody Guthrie Center members. "I'm honored to receive the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize", Springsteen said. After a brief acceptance speech, Springsteen is interviewed by Guthrie and Robert Santelli, before performing a four-song solo acoustic set. The event was pre-recorded, probably on April 21.

Virtual Woody Guthrie Prize Event

Prize Ceremony/Interview

Performance

Bruce Springsteen

Woody Guthrie Prize

Nora Guthrie’s award presentation speech:
“Hi, everyone. You know, the Woody Guthrie Prize is given every year to an artist who best exemplifies the spirit and life work of my father, Woody Guthrie, by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance or any other art form that serves as a positive force for change in America. Oh my, that sounds so serious, but I wanna go back a little bit and tell you because actually the truth be known, this is a very simple and natural journey for these particular artists because it’s really just what they do naturally. It’s what they do without thinking too much about it and it’s what they do without even talking too much about it. It’s what they do even if there’s no reward or even worse, they’ll do it even if there’s some nasty consequences. So some participate with activists at rallies, some like to put their bodies on the line with workers on picket lines or with protestors in the streets. Others like to write down the words and voices of those who don’t have a page of their own to write, recreating them as characters in a novel. Some tell us something important about these lives through newspaper articles, history books or blogs. Others have a talent for theatrical depictions full of gaudy costumes, bright lights and cameras. Some choreograph (?) to rhythms and raps of the people’s music and some dance to magnificent symphonies, which have been known to stop tanks in places like Tiananmen Square. So you see each of these artists approaches their work with a very unique talent but they all arrive at a common landing. Now, I remember growing up with Pete Seeger who Bruce had the opportunity to work with and Pete used to sing this song called “What a Beautiful City (Twelve Gates to the City),” it went like this: [sings: “Oh, what a beautiful city. Oh, what a beautiful city. Oh, what a beautiful city. There’s twelve gates to the city.] And he ended the song: [sings: “Hallelu.”] Three gates to the south, three gates to the north, three to the west, three to the east, so many ways to get to the city, and it doesn’t matter which road you take to get there. So this award represents all the many different roads that artists have taken to take us to that city. My father actually did all of these: he was a songwriter, he performed in migrant camps and picket lines and at rallies, he busked in bars and subway trains but he also had popular radio shows, he made records, he wrote essays, novels and he wrote regular columns in newspapers, he painted pictures of what he saw around him and he drew topical and political cartoons. You know, he even performed live on stage with dancers and actors on television, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway as well, and in migrant camps and pickers’ fields. So, anyway, he pretty much used everything at his disposal to say what he thought needed to be said and what he heard in the voices all around him in the times that he was living. He heard them say things like “I ain’t got no home” and he heard them say “All you fascists, you’re bound to lose,” he heard them say “I got the Dustbowl blues” and he heard them magnify the legends of their heroes: Pretty Boy Floyd, Harriet Tubman, Franklin Roosevelt. And he also heard the voices of children playing, crying, waking, learning. Obviously, like I said, he chose all twelve roads to do his work but underlying all these voices was this incredible thought, this imaginable vision that this land was made for you and me. My father described his art as tracks behind a leaky mind, a mind so charged that you just can’t get the ideas out fast enough in whatever form it takes. So that’s really what the spirit of this prize is all about, it’s about listening and representing the people’s often quiet voices that you as an artist as privy to hear, to enter the lives of others and hear what they want to tell us and like a ventriloquist the artist tells us what they’re hearing. What the living tell us needs to be said out loud so these artists do their speak because they recognize within themselves all of these voices. They know that as much as these are our people, we are theirs because in a strange way we work for them whether we’re aware of it or not. Okay, all of this brings me to Bruce. [Nora laughs, Bruce smiles.] All of that! And by the way everything that I’ve been talking about is really about Bruce [Bruce chuckles]. He’s gone “Really, it is?” [laughs] You’ll figure it out. I’m gonna leave it to all the music critics and historians to dissect your work and talk about your records and your family, your pets, whatever they like to write about [Bruce chuckles] ‘cause I wanna talk about something else [Bruce: “Okay.”] with you about you. And I wanna say that I think when I think of your work, another phrase, if you don’t mind, of my father’s comes to mind and he wrote “You gotta vaccinate yourself into the big stream and the blood of the people.” That’s an odd coincidence to use that phrase these days but [Bruce: “Yeah.”] he did use that phrase “To vaccinate yourself into the stream of people’s lives.” Bruce never left that stream. His words have always consistently flowed in that big stream and blood of the people – no different than my dad’s. Times have changed, costumes have changed, characters have changed but basically the troubadour’s job is to express that flow, what’s happening in the people’s lives and that’s mirrored in everything you do. I wanna say I personally believe that the greatness of your work lies in the fact that you continue to remain in this flow – he’s never abandoned it, he never abandoned himself – and I call this a certain loyalty, that loyalty to people. And by people, scholars like to use the word “humanity,” it’s a little bit too big a word for me, if you don’t mind it. Humanity, it’s a lot of people. So Bruce, you’ve been exactly this kind of artist for many, many, many years now. You’ve introduced us to new people, people I didn’t know anything about, you’ve been telling us what they’re saying, what they’re thinking. You’ve been telling us who they love, you’ve been telling us what pisses them off. In every song you write, the characters grow and grow and grow with every year that you work so what started as maybe a small tribe in your town has now grown to millions and millions and millions of people around the world that are a part of your city, the same city that Pete Seeger sang about. First you attracted us but then you magnetized us, magnetized us, you held our attention. Then you spoke to us and you spoke for us and, to top it off, you entertained us. And we could dance [Bruce chuckles] with you, as you preach we can dance until unbeknownst to all of us we all come through the doors of your church and when we get there we only find it’s not Bruce’s church, it’s the church of all of us. That reminds me of another thing my dad said that I think both of you have in common, he said “My religion is so big no matter who you are, you’re in it and no matter what you do, you cannot get out of it. Where the music is the word and the people are the song.” The music is your words and your people are your songs. That’s the church that you built with all of your songs, there’s nothing more to say. You’re so loved, Bruce, you’re truly loved. I can’t imagine anything an artist would want more than that, the end result, nothing to achieve, nothing to strive for than to just be loved by so many people and I hope that every time you look at this little prize here, I want you to remember that and to know that. So this is the little prize. Now, you notice it’s different than other prizes that have come around, it’s not gold, it’s not crystal, it’s a funky little guitar that looks very, very worn. [chuckles] It’s been used and strummed at all kinds of occasions for all kinds of people, and that’s what this little guitar symbolizes with certain humility, that it’s the people’s guitar and your time has come to accept this little guy and I leave you with one last thing my father always ended with, he said “Take it easy but take it.” [Bruce chuckles] So, Bruce, on the behalf of everyone at the Woody Guthrie Center and my family, I would like you to get here and take this little guy.”

Bruce:
“[claps his hands] Thank you.”

Guthrie:
“Oh my God, he’s so heavy. Thank you.”

Bruce’s award acceptance speech:
“Thank you. Thank you. Ooh. I gotta give you a hug. [Bruce and Guthrie hug]. This is so beautiful. Thank you, thank you, Nora. Uh, I don’t know what to say because…I was…I mean, I was 28 years old and I’d had some popular success and I was going through a period in my life where I felt strangely hopeless. I wrote a record called “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” which was a very dark examination of what I felt my community of people that I’d come from and that I was speaking to, who were under siege. And I looked in country music, I looked into pop music for what I needed to tell that story. I looked into country ‘cause I thought these were adult issues and I was in pursuit of some light, some hope inside of that picture, and it wasn’t until I came across your father’s music that I found that hope. Country music was a little too fatalistic. The popular music of the day wasn’t quite going deep enough into investigating the class issues and the political issues of the moment. And I always said that Bob, Bob Dylan was the father of my country but your father was the grandfather of my country. He was the first music where I found a reflection of America that I believed to be true, where I believed the veils had been pulled off and that what I was seeing was the real country that I live in and that…and what was at stakes for the people and the citizenry who are my neighbors and friends. And that drove me deeply, deeply into a direction that without his influence coming at that exact moment – I was 30 years old and we began to perform “This Land Is Your Land” in concert – I don’t know if I would ever have gotten there, if I would ever have found that kind of hope, that kind of dedication to putting your work into some form of action and, uh, just a deeper telling of the stories of folks whose stories I always felt often go unheard so…I don’t know what else to say except I gotta thank your Pops, I gotta thank you [Guthrie: “You can play your little guitar.”] I’ll be playing this little guitar and telling my stories a little while longer. (chuckles) Thanks, Nora. [Guthrie: “You’re welcome. Congratulations.”] Love you.”

Guthrie:
“So we’re gonna have a few minutes now where we’re gonna actually sit and talk to Bruce and ask him some questions, which is really special. I wanna introduce you to Bob Santelli, who’s going to be our interrogator.”

Santelli:
“[chuckles] Thank you, Nora, and before we start, I have to say your remarks were amazing, you just nailed it. It was just a great tribute to the prize, to your father, to his music, so thank you very much for that, yeah.”

[Guthrie rises her right fist in the air.]

Santelli:
“Bruce, you mentioned in your remarks the importance of Woody’s music to you. When did you first come upon him? I heard that you’d gotten a copy of Joe Klein’s “Woody Guthrie – A Life” – Did you read that?”

Bruce:
“Yeah, that was a big book when I was in my late twenties and early thirties and I was looking to provide some form and shape and heart and soul and ideas to my body of work, you know. I was young and I knew I wanted to take popular music and rock and roll music to a, what I felt was a more adult and at the same time a little more socially aware place and I was just looking for ancestors, you know, whether it was in film or in novels or in music, I was in search of ancestors. At the time I discovered John Ford and, uh, I came across John Steinbeck and of course Woody Guthrie and music so those were three powerful figures, all of whom entered my life in my late twenties and early thirties and Woody was extremely important.”

Santelli:
“You said that you were looking for this, there was a search going on. Where did that come from? Were you not being fulfilled with the kind of writing you were doing, say, on “Born to Run” or “Darkness?”

Bruce:
“Well, you’re always, you know, it’s like you’re never answering the question, these questions, you know, you’re never providing solutions, you’re, you’re, what you’re, what you can only hope to do is ask better questions so I’m on the lookout for better questions. And by the time I was almost thirty, I was…And you forget like the oldest musicians in my game in those days were in their forties so thirties felt for a pop musician at the time…That’s up there. You know, there weren’t a lot of other…It, it was something that had not yet been, that ground had not been broken very, you know, yet and I was looking, saying “Well, I want this to be an adult form also and I want to add adult concerns and societal concerns and some politics and some, some of the traveling circus and some newspaper writing and some…I want to put you in other people’s shoes and have you walk in them for a while, I just, I wanna do, I wanna bring all of this into what I was calling my popular music at that moment and I had to go out and find my (anthracenes?) you know, and, and that’s where I found them, particularly in those three men, you know, and, uh…But we started, we were playing sizeable places at the time and I…It was just pre-Reagan, I guess, and I was…And we started to do “This Land Is Your Land” again and, uh, as a way of contextualizing our night, as a way of saying “This is…This, this…All of what we have created is in the shadow of this beautiful tree that’s been created twenty, thirty, forty years ago, you know, and if you see what we’re doing tonight under this umbrella of this incredible song, that’ll give you a little closer idea as to who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish,” so, uh, using that song in, in, in our show in the ‘80s was, it, it was a big moment for us because I was asking our audience to see us in a lineage of performers who were speaking to and for them and who had their eyes and lights set on a better world, you know, so that was really an essential moment in the turning of, of our, of our work life.”

Santelli:
“I’m pretty sure it was Nassau Coliseum, I was at the show and you played “This Land Is Your Land” and it took the audience by surprise. They had – perhaps some of them had never heard it before but…”

Bruce:
“I’m sure, you know.”

Santelli:
“Yeah, yeah.”

Bruce:
“Or hadn’t heard it in the context where it could, hopefully, deeply be understood, you know, and, uh…Particularly in the context that, you know, this, this is a present voice. This isn’t a voice from history, this is a voice that’s present now and who has stories to tell you that matter right now, you know, and that was how I felt about Woody and, and how I felt about his music, you know.”

Santelli:
“You had the great opportunity – I’m sure it’s one of your great memories – of standing with Pete…”

Bruce:
“Yeah.”

Santelli:
“At the Obama inauguration and playing “This Land Is Your Land,” which gave America chills, I mean everybody who heard that.”

Bruce:
“That was a great day and a great experience.”

Santelli:
“Yeah, yeah, how did that come about? Did Pete call you?”

Bruce:
“I think that Patti said “You should have Pete Seeger come sing with you.” I believe she came up with that idea and I said “Sounds like a good idea,” you know. And I knew Pete a little bit but not real well so I was a little hesitant to call but we called and he said “Yeah, I’m into it.” [chuckles] So that’s how it happened.”

Santelli:
“Nora, when did you first hear Bruce’s music?”

Guthrie:
“Nebraska.” [chuckles]. Yeah.”

Santelli:
“So I think you got that – didn’t you get that album in the mail or something?”

Guthrie:
“Yeah, my mom got it in the mail and I don’t know if it, I feel like it came from you but it doesn’t sound like you sent her the album. [chuckles] Maybe your manager or somebody.”

Bruce:
“Someone did, yeah, I’m not sure.”

Guthrie:
“But it was like signed and everything and it was very personal, it was like “To Marjorie with love,” you know, “Bruce” or something like that and, uh…”

Bruce:
“I’m sorry – that record was written right around the time when I was very influenced by your, your dad, you know, early ‘80s…”

Guthrie:
“You were 22.*”
[*Nora was born in 1950 and Bruce in 1949 so they were 31 and 32.]

Bruce:
“Yeah.”

Guthrie:
“You were 22. We’re the same age.”

Bruce:
“Ah?”

Guthrie:
“So I know how old you are and now you know how old I am. But, uh [chuckles] I remember going, I think it was in Nassau Coliseum, Harold Leventhal…”

Bruce:
“Yeah.”

Guthrie:
“Had gotten tickets for the show and he asked me if I wanted to go with him and it was very gracious, I think we had like almost front row seats so tenth row…The music was so loud [Bruce chuckles] my, the bass line was killing, killing me softly with your beat, the Roberta Flack song but, and I was just like [stares with mouth open] “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!” and I said “I love this but I’m gonna die and I was really worried ‘cause Harold was an elderly man at that time and I said “He’s gonna have a heart attack right in the middle of this show.” [Bruce and Santelli chuckle.]

Bruce:
“I warned people about that actually.”

Guthrie:
“I have learned my lesson, now I only ask for tickets way in the back. [Bruce chuckles.] But that was…”

Santelli:
“So it was “Nebraska,” yeah.”

Guthrie:
“Yeah, but in the terms of context of what Bruce was talking about too about making the music and making the message accessible to our generation because we were such rock and roll generation and for me it was, um, your, your, what you called your father of music, Bob Dylan, what he first did 19-, 1968 when my dad was passed away, they did a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall

Bruce:
“Right.”

Guthrie:
“And Bob was there with a band – a band – just a band [chuckles.]”

Santelli:
“The Band, right.”

Guthrie:
“That then in a year became The Band and he did one of the, “The Grand Coulee Dam”-song, “Big Grand Coulee Dam” and “Dear Mrs Roosevelt” and another song and he rocked it.

Bruce:
“Yeah.”

Guthrie:
“Now let me tell you, I grew up with acoustic guitars and I particularly grew up with people tuning acoustic guitars, which is somewhat like water torture. [Mimics tuning.] I would go down into my living room and there’s like ten guys [mimics tuning] This went on for hours, you know [chuckles]. Anyway, so when I heard Bob rock some of that stuff and that’s what I was trying to say in my presentation to you, to have this, the words and the meaning of the words enter your body so that you could really enjoy it, we wanted to dance to everything, you know, and that’s when it started for me and then I think, my impression is that Bruce kind of took over that, for me that was part of that ancestry that he’s talking about so when the message melds with the machine.”

Santelli:
“Yeah. Clearly, you know, Woody’s music really demonstrated how music could be a force for change, it could be the voice for the voiceless, it has a profound meaning and impact. You picked up on that early. Do artists like yourself, like Woody, perhaps like everyone have responsibility to do that, to make sure that there are songs in the repertoire that carry some intensity other than just making people dance?”

Bruce:
“Yeah, I, I don’t think any artist has a responsibility to write literally social conscious, conscious lyrics or anything like that, you know, because you can go say okay, was there a more revolutionary artist than Elvis Presley as far as changing the world, you know, crossing gender lines, crossing racial lines? Uh…Showing, freeing people’s inner and outer souls and bodies, you know, or, or was there a… How revolutionary were The Beatles? These are all acts that had absolutely no, uh, uh, no literally socially conscious lyrics in their body of work so, so that, that’s just either, you know, either it’s that style of writing or it’s not that style of writing but, uh, so I don’t, I don’t…I think the world changes in many and mysterious ways. The way we think changes in many and mysterious ways. What broads us to think differently, to behave differently, to question what we see differently can come from the most unexpected places, you know, that’s what wonderful about popular culture and popular entertainment. I think, I just think it’s, it’s what you like or choose to write about, you know, I was interested in those stories because I felt that piece of my own story was connected at the hip to it, that my experience growing up, my experience with my father left me with a lot of unanswered questions that this type of writing was going to assist me in delving into and getting me to ask those better questions is going to lead me down a road where I’m gonna learn more about myself, the world that I live in, the community that I live amongst, what the possibilities of democracy, human freedom and liberty is, that’s where I felt all of that lie for me so I went down that road, you know and, uh, uh…But there’s a lot of different ways to do it, you know, but, uh…The broadness of Woody’s music, the…First of all, there’s the beauty of the writing itself, you know, uh, that was changing, you know, just the, just the beauty of the lyrics, you know, the beauty of the words themselves, there’s the beauty of those narratives and those stories were, were…I mean Woody was a writer, he was a real writer and, uh…So that, that excited me, that and, and certain novels I was reading at the time and I said “Yeah, I wanna get into some of this, I wanna speak in other voices and I wanna be, uh, have the freedom to tell this story and that story and, and, and Woody had kind of a, uh, uh…He laid out a blueprint as to, as to a way to go about that, that could set you off on figuring the rest out on your own journey.”

Santelli:
“Yeah. I don’t know if this is true but I always thought of your work where Woody in particular allowed you to, for the lack of a better term, go beyond New Jersey where you began to see in your music a more holistic view of America. There are places that you wrote about whether it was the Southwest or Utah Desert.”

Bruce:
“Yeah.”

Santelli:
“That, uh, like he, he traveled and he wrote about what he saw. Can you relate to that? Is that something that you borrowed from him or were inspired by?”

Bruce:
“After my first two or three records, I,I…I think I just didn’t want to be labeled as – I mean I love New Jersey, I’m from New, you know, but I’m interested in the country as, at large, as a whole, you know, and I’m in interested in the people who are living and having experiences in the Southwest or when we, when we went to California, you know, it was funny people looked at that part of my life as, as, as sort of “Gee, I don’t know, he went to Los Angeles,” but, but when I went to California, there’s a, you can inhabit a lot of different Californias and California was an enormous influence on some of my most topical writing through my ‘90s, the 2000’s and even now, we have a record coming out soon that’s set largely in the West, you know, so I got very involved in telling those Western stories, uh, through my work so, you know. But yeah, yeah, he took in the whole country and a whole, a whole, a whole vision that I found very, very compelling and necessary and attractive and I, I wanted to try to fill just a little, tiny bit of those shoes, you know.”

Santelli:
“Today it seems that there’s been a whole resurgence, a renaissance of the art of the song as a means to express political and social protest, from H.E.R’s “I Can’t Breathe” on down, everything, it seems like there’s been just a flood of great, new music, kind of like there was in the 1960’s. What’s your take on music as an agent for change today? Clearly there’s a lot that needs to be changed, there’s a lot that we need to challenge. Songs are doing that again.”

Bruce:
“It’s always good that it’s out there. I think there’s a, the big difference between now and, say, the ‘60’s is you forget that music, music itself was at the center of the cultural conversation. Uh, it was just, uh, you know, there was no Internet, there was no video games, there was no, uh, the myriad of other things that people get lost in and go to for other information today so music played, there was, uh, that baby boom, there was an enormous amount of youth in the United States and music was the language by which we expressed ourselves and spoke to one another. That’s unique, I don’t know if that thing is going to happen again. It’s always good, I think, when performers get involved in, in, in the moment and “I Can’t Breathe” by H.E.R was a great example, you know, uh, of just, it was a great piece of music that worked, you know, like that, and, and so, uh…You know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s always worth putting it out there ‘cause you don’t know who you’re going to, to touch, who you’re going to reach, who you’re going to move at any given moment, you know.”

Santelli:
“If I asked you – and we’ll end with this a, a little lighter question. Uh, if you had to take two or three Woody Guthrie songs with you to that proverbial desert island other than “This Land Is Your Land,” which ones are in your pocket?

Bruce:
“Oh, man…uh…let me think. I’m gonna sing “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos,” so that “Deportees,” that, that was a big one for me. Uh…”

Guthrie:
“You liked the car one too.”

Bruce:
“Huh?”

Guthrie:
“You liked the car one too.”

Bruce:
“Yeah. [Santelli chuckles, Bruce smiles.] The children’s song. I love the idea, him, and Pete picked it up after Woody did, they were literally making those great children’s songs so there’s something wonderful in that. I’m forgetting the title of it at the time.”

Guthrie:
“Car, Car.”

Bruce:
“Car, Car.” “Car, Car,” it’s got a, it’s kind of wonderful because, you know, it’s like, imagine having, coming and having just afternoon shows where you just play to children, you know, that’s, that’s wonderful.”

Santelli:
“Well, you, the last time the three of us were together was in Cleveland when we did the Celebration of Woody Guthrie and Nora and I, we created something called the American Music Masters and Pete played, many did, Arlo played, and you played “Car, Car.”

Bruce:
“Right, right, I remember it.”

Santelli:
“You had all the engine parts down and the beeping of the horn and to this day, I have a grandson now and that is his favorite song [Bruce chuckles] even at one and he is, uh, and he gets it but, yeah, you’ve done those, and those have been great. Just shows how much Woody has touched…”

Bruce:
“Pastures of Plenty,” I’d take “Pastures of Plenty.”

Santelli:
“Yeah, you’d have to take that one.”

Bruce:
“That’s a beauty.”

Guthrie:
“I just have to add when talking about if you intentionally write socially conscious songs and everything. I think, what I was talking about earlier was this is who they are, these people, like they don’t think about it and they don’t talk about it, they’re evolving. And as they evolve, something new comes to mind, like “Oh, I didn’t know that, I think I’ll go there. Oh, I didn’t know that. Oh, oh, what’s that?” So they’re…You said it’s all about asking the right question and as you grow, your questions become more and more universal and it starts with the guy across the street that you start writing about. Woody wrote about the Dust Bowl and in an interview he said, they asked him why he wrote about the Dust Bowl and he says “Well, I was there and the dust was there.” End of, end of answer. So there’s that very small sense of who am I and where am I and then it begins to change as you grow and there are certain artists that continue to ask questions and continue to grow. Some of them stop at a certain point, certain level of success or whatever and they say “This is it. This is as far as I’m going” and it’s great, you know. So the thing is not to judge any of that but allow the artist to just keep evolving as much and as long as he or she wants to and part of that as you grow, and you know this as a parent, suddenly you’re aware of things you were never aware of, you know, what’s happening to this and how is it affecting my kids and what’s the school like. So you keep growing and when your kids grow up, you keep growing, “What’s happening in my country? What’s happening in my world? What’s happening on my planet? Blah, blah, blah.” And I think Bruce is a really good example of an uncensored evolution [chuckles] on an individual. I mean that’s what is. It’s just “I’m thinking this and I’m gonna write this.” And everyone is evolving and some of them are taking a really long time. [chuckles] Some of them are going from here to here in a lifetime [gestures with hands to show the length] and some of them go from here to here in a lifetime, some of them go wow. And I just wanna add to when talking about the Obama inauguration, when I was watching that, I always wanted to thank you for allowing that moment in history.”

Bruce:
“Oh…”

Guthrie:
“Because first of all, you allowed it, they asked you and then you got the ball rolling with everything else.”

Bruce:
“Oh, that was…Yeah, it was wonderful. I was just honored to have Pete there and then the, the kids singing that special, that special song with us.”

Guthrie:
“The thing that I saw, I was alone in my house watching that night and I swear I looked up, I started crying and I looked up at my father and I said “So that’s why you wrote this song.” It was that moment with the first African-American President, with the gospel choir, the kids in the background, with you with Pete who’s been blacklisted his whole frigging life, and you totally took that story and wrapped it up and tied it with a bow. That Pete Seeger could sing in front of the President of the United States at his inauguration. If anyone who’s been blacklisted or families like mine that were blacklisted for years – to have that wrapped ribbon put on that moment was hallelujah and I thank you so much for doing that, not for Pete’s family but for my family, for the song, for America. And I just said, I said to my father: “That’s why you wrote this song.” Not only that – how many people sang along in the audience? People that were…Every single person could sing along, they all knew the words. There couldn’t have been any other song in history…

Bruce:
“No.”

Guthrie:
“That everyone and even Obama was mumbling along and, you know. So I think that was like one of the most significant moments in history if you look back in time and you [points at Bruce] made that, you made that moment.”

Bruce:
“Oh, that’s great, that’s great.”

Santelli:
“Didn’t you once say that it was one of the greatest if not the greatest song ever written about America?”

Bruce:
“I would still put it right there. [All three chuckle].”

Guthrie:
“Don’t put words in his mouth.”

Bruce:
“[smiles] I’ll, I’ll, I’ll put it there.”

Santelli:
“He’ll put it there.”

Bruce:
“I’ll do that. I don’t have any, I don’t have any problem at all putting it there.”

Guthrie:
“But it was like the song was bigger than all of us. It was bigger than you and bigger than Pete and like I say it just, I can’t tell you watching Pete in his lifetime and my father and so many families that I knew what had been blacklisted. You know, I don’t know if your audience would know that Pete wasn’t allowed to sing on radio for 25 years, he wasn’t allowed to appear on television, it was, you know. So to have Bruce Springsteen say “Everybody, listen to this guy right now” was an amazing moment in history and I’m so…It was caught on film and I, I think you might not even know what a great moment that was [chuckles].”

Bruce:
“That’s great.”

Santelli:
“And you should know that the very first recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize was Pete Seeger.”

Bruce:
“That’s nice.”

Santelli:
“And unfortunately we didn’t, we weren’t able to give it to him in person, he had died just a couple of weeks before we were actually able to do it. Sad but I’m sure he received it wherever he was. Look, we could continue talking here but I think the best thing about Woody Guthrie is the music so I think we’re gonna turn it over to you and, uh…”

Bruce:
“Alright. I’ll sing a few.”

Santelli:
“Maybe you got some songs for us.”

Bruce:
“I’ll do what I can.”

Santelli:
“Alright.”

Guthrie:
“If you need any words, just ask me. [chuckles].”

Bruce:
“I will. [chuckles] Thanks.”

Intro to “Tom Joad”
“Everybody ready?…”

Intro to “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)”
“Okay, here we go. One, two, two, three [starts playing]…Woody’s immigration song…Our immigration laws are a mess to this day and …this is called “Deportee”…”

Guthrie: (After Bruce’s four-song set)
“So the time has come for us to say goodbye to New Jersey and I wanna thank Bruce and Patti for allowing us to use this beautiful space of theirs to make such a nice program for the Woody Guthrie Prize and I also wanna thank this wonderful crew that’s making us look good and sound good for the award today. So thanks again and adios from New Jersey and let’s go back to Oklahoma.”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Woody Guthrie Prize