A Complete Unknown

Ladies and gentlemen, Woody Guthrie.

[radio announcer speaking indistinctly]

...will take some pressure off the kicking department...

and Packers star kicker Paul Hornung.

For the NFC Eastern Conference New York Giants...

they'll be in their away uniforms,

white jerseys with red numerals,

blue helmets, and silver football pants.

The Giants are eight and three at this stage of the season.

Y.A. Tittle is in at quarterback as usual for the Giants.

Thank you.

He sang a country song, that doesn't mean

he's not still a Catholic or a Communist.

You're boxin' him in.

You don't think there's a difference

between folk music and country music?

I didn't ask you to box him in.

Nobody asked you to box him in.

You did that. I asked you a question,

you answered a question. There you go.

All right. That's it. That's enough for me.

I'm off. Good night.

Hey, mister, you know where this place is?

Called Greystone.

I think Woody Guthrie's in there.

That's a, uh, hospital, pal.

In Morris Plains.

Where is that? Uptown?

No.

Woody's across the river in New Jersey.

Christ, I just came from New Jersey.

So go back.

All rise.

Mr. Seeger, do you have anything to say

before I pronounce your sentence?

In my whole life, I've never said or done anything

subversive to my country, Your Honor.

That's not why I'm here.

I'm here because some second-rate politician from Louisiana...

decided that he don't like a song I sang...

[audience murmuring in agreement]

...or maybe he don't like some of the folks

I might have sung it to.

Mr. Seeger, a jury has found you guilty

of contempt of Congress.

I refused to name names and I...

Refused questions! Under a federal subpoena!

Your Honor, you may know a friend of mine,

Woody Guthrie.

Great songwriter and a great American,

and Woody's not well...

but he's been much on my mind

as I've been going through this,

'cause Woody once said that,

"a good song can only do good."

That's right!

And the song I'm in hot water for here, it's a good song.

It's a patriotic song, in fact.

Amen!

And I thought, maybe you'd like to actually hear the words,

and I could play it for you.

-And you'll know. -No, no, no.

-No, you're not doing that. -

- -Quiet!

-I said, quiet! -Are you sure? It's free.

Now, look at that, the skies are clearing, see?

Pete! Pete! Pete!

Pete, are you disappointed?

Think you got a fair shake?

Wish you'd testified, Pete?

How do you feel about the judgement?

We didn't get the result

that we thought was right,

but we're free to fight another day.

I offered to play a song for the judge up there

but he didn't wanna hear it.

But I feel like singing. So, I'm gonna sing it for you.

You know the words.

That's all you got?

-Yeah. -

Hello.

Excuse me, Mr. Guthrie.

Well, no one calls him that except the government.

I'm not the government.

Well, come on over, then.

I'm Pete, by the way.

Yes, sir. No question about it.

How about you?

I'm Bobby.

Something come after that?

Dylan.

Uh, Woody would like to know more about that, Bobby Dylan.

Oh, um...

I sing and I... I play,

and I write songs, actually, a couple of friends of mine,

Paul and John, out in Minneapolis.

Midwestern boy?

Yeah, and they showed me some of

Woody's records, uh, Folkway ones.

Yours and Lead Belly and, uh...

I listened to 'em while they struck me down to the ground.

I like yours, too, Pete.

Oh, that's fine.

Anyways, uh, Paul, my friend, uh,

he said you was in the hospital, so...

I hitched myself here.

Why is that?

Well, I wanted to meet Woody.

Maybe catch a spark.

That's for damn sure.

We had those printed up for visitors.

It's mostly family now, though.

Uh, Woody wants to hear something.

You shy?

Not usually.

Well, this is one I wrote for him.

Uh...

I wrote for you.

Do you mind?

Oh, no.

Suspected of collaborating with the Vietcong...

It's Little Richard.

That's the flipside on Long Tall Sally.

You like that rock and roll music, then?

Well, I like everything, Pete.

Except maybe, uh,

Patti Page and That Doggie in the Window

-or, you know, Vaughn Monroe. -

I like Johnny Cash. You ever hear of him?

Oh, sure.

Yeah, I like Hank Williams.

Ah, now you're talking.

Yeah.

But if you're talking about rock and roll, specifically,

you gotta be talking about Buddy Holly.

You think of yourself as a folk musician now, though. Yeah?

Well, I don't think to myself as a folk singer,

you know, folk music thing.

I mean, I do sing folk music,

but when I do, it's sort of a modified version or something.

You know, not a modified version,

it's just, you know, sorta...

A good song. A really good song.

It can get the job done without the frills.

Without drums or electrified instruments or any of that.

Yeah, but sometimes they sound good.

Hey, Tosh.

This is Bobby,

fellow traveler.

He, uh, paid a visit to Woody and he had nowhere to sleep.

All right.

Hi, Bob.

-Toshi. -Hello.

Now, we finally got a drill

hard enough to get through all this rock

and now we got water like a Swiss hotel.

We'll set you up here.