With the release of Larry Charles' new memoir 'Comedy Samurai', I felt that now was a good time to revisit an interview I made with him about 'Masked and Anonymous' more than 20 years ago.
Not long after re-reading this interview, i came across these comments from Woody Guthrie, which chime well with a segment of your piece:
"In a voice note among the tapes, which is included on the album, Guthrie reminded his publisher that he saw all of his songs as works in progress. “I have never yet put a song on tape or a record, or wrote it down or printed it down or typed it up, or anything else that I really thought was a through and a finished and a done song, and it couldn’t be improved on, couldn’t be changed around, couldn’t be made better,” Guthrie said."
Wonderful stuff. I love this interview - even gave me a perfect quote re language for my Dylan & Shakespeare, book. More importantly, it just makes you want to go back and revisit "Masked and Anonymous" again, and again.
Not long after re-reading this interview, i came across these comments from Woody Guthrie, which chime well with a segment of your piece:
"In a voice note among the tapes, which is included on the album, Guthrie reminded his publisher that he saw all of his songs as works in progress. “I have never yet put a song on tape or a record, or wrote it down or printed it down or typed it up, or anything else that I really thought was a through and a finished and a done song, and it couldn’t be improved on, couldn’t be changed around, couldn’t be made better,” Guthrie said."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/arts/music/woody-guthrie-tapes-woody-at-home.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU8.bRbO.fYb-wGLoAL-2&smid=url-share
Fantastic!
That was an excellent interview! Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful stuff. I love this interview - even gave me a perfect quote re language for my Dylan & Shakespeare, book. More importantly, it just makes you want to go back and revisit "Masked and Anonymous" again, and again.
great great stuff. Thank you.