[Dixielandjazz] Alan Lomax

[John Farrell]

Here is Arlo Guthrie's thought-provoking response to Dave Marsh's less than
complimentary comments about the life and work of Alan Lomax.

John Farrell
stridepiano@tesco.net
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm

Arlo's piece begins :

Regarding Alan Lomax
A response to Dave Marsh's recent column

By Arlo Guthrie

When we need to research certain songs we will be delving into Lomax's Folk
Songs of North America for the next few hundred years. Sure he was an
asshole... he wasn't the only one. There are many people who have exploited
the works of singers and writers, collecting and publishing - businessmen
who essentially ended up with very valuable properties without doing
anything or with having paid anything for the material.

Dave Marsh still collaborates with them... as do we all. They are friends.
Just because someone is one the right side of an issue or two doesn't make
him a saint or even a good-guy. And just because someone is an asshole
doesn't mean we can't honor the work they've done or the talent they
employed to do so.

I loved Alan Lomax for the good he did, as I love many others whose sense of
integrity may be somewhat different from my own. I love Dave saying what he
had to say. My father reminded us, on various occasions, that the world
seems to require both whats right and whats wrong. He thanked those willing
to be assholes noting that if they were to stop, well, maybe some of us
would have to take their places - and maintain the balance of the world.

Thanks to all, living or dead, willing to have been themselves. And Alan was
certainly one of those.