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TechnoratiUtah Phillips Has Left the Stage
"Utah" Phillips died this week at the age of 73. He was a musician, labor organizer, peace activist and co-founder of his local homeless shelter. He also was an archivist, a historian and a traveler, playing guitar and singing almost forgotten songs of the dispossessed and the downtrodden, and keeping alive the memory of labor heroes like Emma Goldman, Joe Hill and the Industrial Workers of the World, "the Wobblies," in a society that too soon forgets.
Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935, in Cleveland, by his midteens he was riding the rails. He told me of those days in an interview in 2004. By then, he was slowed down by congestive heart failure. His long, white beard flowed over his bow tie, plaid shirt and vest. We sat in a cramped attic of a pirate radio station that was frequently raided by federal authorities. In the early days, he met old-timers, "old, old alcoholics who could only shovel gravel. But they knew songs."
In 1956, he joined the Army and got sent to postwar Korea. What he saw there changed him forever: "Life amid the ruins. Children crying-that's the memory of Korea. Devastation. I saw an elegant and ancient culture in a small Asian country devastated by the impact of cultural and economic imperialism. Well, that's when I cracked. I said: 'I can't do this anymore. You know, this is all wrong. It all has to change. And the change has to begin with me.'"
After three years in the Army, he went back to the state that earned him his nickname, Utah. There he met Ammon Hennacy, a radical pacifist, who had started the Joe Hill House in Salt Lake City, inspired by the Catholic Worker movement. Hennacy guided Utah Phillips toward pacifism. Utah recalled: "Ammon came to me one day and said, 'You've got to be a pacifist.' And I said, 'How's that?' He said, 'Well, you act out a lot. You use a lot of violent behavior.' And I was. You know, I was very angry. 'You're not just going to lay down guns and fists and knives and hard angry words. You're going to have to lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed.' If there's one struggle that animates my life, it's probably that one."
Utah's pacifism drove him to run for the U.S. Senate in 1968 on the Peace and Freedom ticket, taking a leave of absence from his civil-service job: "I was a state archivist-and ran a full campaign, 27 counties. We took 6,000 votes in Utah. But when it was over, my job would vanish, and I couldn't get work anymore in Utah."
Thus began his 40 years in "the trade," a traveling, working musician: "The trade is a fine, elegant, beautiful, very fruitful trade. In that trade, I can make a living and not a killing." He eschewed the commercial music industry, once telling Johnny Cash, who wanted to record a number of Utah's songs: "I don't want to contribute anything to that industry. I can't fault you for what you're doing. I admire what you do. But I can't feed that dragon ... think about dollars as bullets." He eventually partnered with one of the most successful independent musicians in the U.S., Ani DiFranco, who created her own label, Righteous Babe Records. Their collaborative work was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Utah Phillips was a living bridge, keeping the rich history of labor struggles alive. He told me: "The long memory is the most radical idea in America. That long memory has been taken away from us. You haven't gotten it in your schools. You're not getting it on your television. You're being leapfrogged from one crisis to the next. Mass media contributed to that by taking the great movements that we've been through and trivializing important events. No, our people's history is like one long river. It flows down from way over there. And everything that those people did and everything they lived flows down to me, and I can reach down and take out what I need, if I have the courage to go out and ask questions." On his radio show "Loafer's Glory," he once said, work on this planet has been to remember."
A week before he died, Utah Phillips wrote in a public letter to his family and friends: "The future? I don't know. Through all of it, up and down, it's the song. It's always been the song."
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America. Her third book, "Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times," was published in April 2008.
© 2008 Amy Goodman
17 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Amy for the tribute. I knew Bruce Phillips and I think you really caught his spirit. His death saddens me for we are all poorer for his passing. Fortunately he left a wonderful legacy of song and story. People who live their "religion" are rare and U.Utah Phillips did so with rare grace.
Utah was one of the most generous people out there, as a performer and a human being. I was lucky to cross paths with him at quite a few festivals. In 2002 I interviewed him about performing, about Vaudeville, and about Clown.I have just posted the interview for those who might be interested. Thank You Utah for all, and there sure was a lot!!
http://yoowho.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/interview-with-utah-phillips/
Like so many here, I met Utah and was touched by his presence.
It was in Cranbrook, British Columbia, in the early 80s, when he was traveling with the Flying Karamazov Brothers who brought their juggling magic and other wonderful old-time circus bits to the countryside -- playing in the open air and making many of us (including me, a single mother of two) want to run off and join the circus.
Utah sat with anyone who was interested; told stories and sang a little; did a lot of listening. He was unforgettable. Still is.
Thankyou Amy - I was wondering if Comon Dreams would be remembering and honouring what an inspirational man Utah was - and will continue to be for those of us committed to change.
Thankyou.
I met Utah in the mid 1970's when I was a free-school kid in Vermont and Utah was recording at Philo Records. He and Rosalie Sorrels did one or two benefits for our little hippie free school. We were always struggling, the state wanted to close us down and we didn't have money. Utah was friendly and funny and helped us out.
Or, put another way,
A Century of mistakes or more has past and yet the Question remains:
What is to be Done?
We might want to answer this.
The Light is already Dying, the Wind already begins to rise, and we have scarcely begun to Prepare for the storm.
Yet Storm is coming.
How will we Meet it?
What is to be done?
-matti.
Also, for those already Awake enough to Act,
Remember Utah Phillips's quote of the last messege from Joe Hill to his Comrades (Its on the Ani Album "Fellow Workers" I believe):
"Don't waste time in mourning, organize."
Don't waste Time in Mourning,...ORGANIZE!
There's a lot of Work left for us to do.
-matti.
Remember the River of Memory.
As all rivers, It ends at the Sea.
Change WILL come.
Remember that.
-matti.
Well, that's when I cracked. I said: 'I can't do this anymore. You know, this is all wrong. It all has to change. And the change has to begin with me.'"
Yeah, I grok, man.
Let the change begin with me too.
Rest in peace Utah.
You are gone, but you will not be forgotten. There is a whole generation of people who are new to your songs--the twenty-somethings I have met at various peace events-- but just as moved and transformed by them as we were.
I was fortunate to spend a few days with Utah at the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival in 2006. He was the same real person onstage or off, and was a lot of fun to be around.
Utah was in top form on Democracy Now May 27, and you can find it at www.democracynow.org in audio, video and text format.
There's a Utah Phillips website at
www.utahphillips.org
A web photo gallery of Utah from 2006 is on my site at
www.nwilsonphoto.com/special/utah
Indeed a tragic loss for all of us who lament the dying of rationality in the left, and the good old strong labor resistance.
I listened to Amy's 2004 interview of Utah on Tuesday's Democracy Now! and must say that it one of the more interesting interviews I have listened to in a while. Utah mentioned that it is very easy to get discouraged with the world if you look at society from the top down, but if you look at things from the bottom up, there are people doing good and making a difference every day. I found this to be so simple, yet it struck me as I listened to the interview, that he was right. Utah was one of those who worked from the ground up throughout his entire life. He was an intelligent and well-spoken man who was a very talented storyteller.
The one quote from the interview that really struck me was as follows:
"We have to fight like hell to turn ourselves back to our own best natural selves."
I think that quote speaks volumes to all of those who are pushing back against a society that is so overwhelming in its abilty to pull us in the direction of the status quo. I encourage those of you who have not heard Amy's interview of Utah to set aside some time and give it a listen at: http://www.democracynow.org
Let's hope Utah rests in peace and that his memory will help us all to be inspired to live in peace.
Last Saturday morning, humming and singing Utah Phillips songs, strongly thinking about him. Couple conversations over the years. Sharing a bill in Denver as I recall (me with Silkie Miller). "Starlight on the Rails", "Rock Me to Sleep", and above all "Goin' Away Blues."
Found out five days later, that he was leaving us just then, in his sleep, at home in California.
Rode those freight trains he sings about. The run from Denver to Glenwood Springs on the D&R.G.W. is about as good as it gets. No signs along the railroad line. Don't have to see or know what some guy decided was the name of this canyon or this creek. That's just a form of pollution. Railroad goes thru wilder country than highways.
Throw wooden kitchen matches off a boxcar at 70 mph across the Great Salt Flats in Nevada at night. They aerodynamically stabilize, hit head first, burst into flame explosively, and bounce thirty feet high, tracing into the air behind your train.
On a freight train, you'll be too dirty, too hot, too thirsty, too cold, too everything, and you can't do anything about it. You can watch the Dairy Queen come near and then go by fifty feet off the track, and you're only thirst and heat.
It's instant Reality Therapy. All you can do on a freight train is BE THERE NOW. And that never happens in the entertainment-centered life. Half an hour on a train, and I'm writing the poetry that got put off. At first it feels like suffering. Then it gets right. Really right.
Mohammad said to travel.
Changes you, makes you more real, bigger, smaller. More who you really are. Ought to be better-respected in this country: hobos, hithhchikers, gypsies, travellers.
It's worth it. You get arrested sometimes, abused sometimes, but it's worth it.
Haven't tried riding a freight since 911. Sure hope there are still ways to catch a train.
Anyway, Utah. A lot of people loved you. I hope and believe you loved us, too. (Silkie always sends his best.) We know your light shone through the dark, like the Midnight Special, shone on us. Go well, Bruce. Go with love, go with courage, facing into the wind, with a song. Thanks.
Larry Frey
Thank you, Amy, for this tribute to Utah Phillips. He was one of the greats, and I'm going to miss him.
I hope some of his radio shows become available for downloading. They're quite interesting.
I was attending Northern Illinois University in 1980 when a group of performers from the Highlander school spent a long weekend giving workshops and shows; among them was Utah Phillips. What was neat was that the performers had meals
with the students in the dorms: I have a vivid memory of Phillips "holding court" at the next table- with four female students spell-bound with his stories. He finished off with the revelation that he had just signed a record contract with RCA - in the middle of the gasps of surprise, he explained-"I buy four - I get one free!"
A wonderful man--he will be missed.