"This Machine Kills Fascists" is a message that Woody Guthrie placed on his
guitar in 1941, which inspired many subsequent artists.
Conception Soon after moving into a small
fourth-floor walk-up apartment in Manhattan, Guthrie wrote the war song
"Talking Hitler's Head Off Blues". This was printed in the Daily Worker
newspaper. Then "In a fit of patriotism and faith in the impact of the song, he
painted on his guitar THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS."
Guthrie's stance against fascism In Guthrie's opposition to fascism, he
conceptualized the ideology "as a form of economic exploitation similar to
slavery..." he straightforwardly denounces the fascists, particularly
their leaders, as a group of gangsters who set out to 'rob the world'." This
recalled a protest strategy he had used "during the Great Depression, when
social, political and economic inequality had been engendered by a
small rich elite." During that era Guthrie had "romanticized the deeds of
outlaws such as Jesse James, Pretty Boy Floyd, Calamity Jane or the Dalton Gang
both as legitimate acts of social responsibility and as 'the ultimate
expression of protest', thus transforming the outlaw into an
archetypal partisan in a fight against those who were held responsible for the
worsening social and economic conditions".
In this Guthrie cast those opposing fascism not as mere outlaws in a fascist
state, but as heroes rising "in times of economic turmoil and social
disintegration" to fight "a highly illegitimate criminal endeavor intended
to exploit the common people." Guthrie joined his voice in portraying not only
as "dumb gangsters" but he also "externalized the inhuman element of
fascism by describing its representatives as animals that were
usually held in very low esteem and were associated with a range of bad character
traits." For example, he talked about the "Nazi Snake" that has to be
countered in his song "Talking Hitler's Head Off Blues." Guthrie would declare
"[a]nything human is anti Hitler" and in his song "You Better Get Read" he has
the figure of Satan declare that "Old Hell just ain't the same/Compared to
Hitler, hell, I'm tame!" Guthrie saw the battle against fascism as the ultimate
battle of good versus evil. In a letter to "Railroad Pete" he stated "fascism
and freedom are the only two sides battling...[this was the war] the world
has been waiting on for twenty five million years...[which would] settle the
score once and for all". Critique
The author Greil Marcus questions the effectiveness of Guthrie's use of the
phrase on his guitar, saying "Woody Guthrie had a sign on his guitar that
said, 'This machine kills fascists.' That's just the kind of connection
between music and politics that I'm arguing against. It wasn't a machine and
it didn't kill fascists. It made Woody Guthrie and the people who listened to
him feel noble. I'm not saying that he wasn't against fascism but to say that
you could defeat it by singing songs is not helpful in the war against fascism."
Marcus contrasted this to songs that say "fascism is the dominant mode of
political behavior in the West today and it has seeped down to our everyday
lives. If fascism now pervades our everyday lives and our interactions with
each other, our whole understanding of social intercourse supports and
ultimately affirms fascism." Marcus holds that songs on Elvis Costello's
Armed Forces record do just that. He stated that "Woody Guthrie says, 'Sing
my songs and defeat fascism.' Elvis Costello says, 'Fascism exists - look
around you.'" Homage
Guitar manufacturer Gibson has replicated Guthrie's 1945 Southern Jumbo
complete with sticker. When appearing on a Glen Campbell hosted
television show in the late 1960s Pete Seeger paid homage to Guthrie's phrase
by writing "This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to Surrender" on the
calfskin head of his banjo and sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" over
images of the drawn-out war in Vietnam. In his autobiography the folksinger
Donovan recalled that out of homage to Guthrie he placed the words "This
machine kills" on his guitar, "thinking that fascism was already dead. My
machine would kill greed and delusion." In the New Orleans-based show Treme,
musician Harley Watt has a sticker on his guitar reading "This Machine
Floats". Rob Baker, of The Tragically Hip, has
'This machine kills fascists' written on his guitar in the video to the song
Bobcaygeon. In a tribute to Guthrie, British
folksinger Billy Bragg wrote the words "This Guitar Says Sorry" on his
instrument in the 1970s. "This Machine Kills Fascists" is the
title of an Anti-Flag track on their 2001 album
Underground Network and on their 2004 DVD Death of a Nation, and also seen on
Chris Barker's bass guitar. a Today Is the Day track from their 2004
album Kiss the Pig an album by Ethan Daniel Davidson
the 2005 album by US jazz trumpeter Nate Wooley
the 2005 film by Stephen Gammond the 2009 album by Beatnik
a D.O.A. track on their 2008 album Northern Avenger
The sleeve of the Half Man Half Biscuit album Achtung Bono includes a picture of
lead singer Nigel Blackwell holding a guitar with the words "This machine
kills wasps" written on it. It is the name of two effect pedals by
TYM Guitars to raise funds for humanitarian charities.
John Green, host of Crash Course and Vlogbrothers has a "⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS
FASCISTS" sticker on the laptop on his desk in the Crash Course history video
series, and refers to the famous photo and accompanying catchphrase in his 2008
novel Paper Towns. He commissioned the sticker design from graphic designer
Karen Kavett to sell laptop stickers with the slogan on them.
Hank Green, the brother of John Green and co-host of Vlogbrothers, is a
musician as well, and his guitar has the words "This machine pwns n00bs" written
on it. This is also the name of his second studio album.
Buzz Osborne, founding member and front man of the Melvins, named his 2014
acoustic solo album This Machine Kills Artists in reference to the phrase.
New Albanian Brewing Company sell a T-shirt with pictures of beer brewing
equipment and the words "These machines kill fascists" written on it.
In the video game Fallout: New Vegas, which depicts a speculative future in
which China and the United States have gone to nuclear war, there is a unique
weapon called "This Machine" featuring the line "Well, this machine kills
commies!" carved on the side. The cover art of the sixth book in
Charles Stross's Laundry Files series "The Annihilation Score" includes the
image of a sticker saying "THIS MACHINE KILLS DEMONS" referring to a bone-white
violin owned by one of the characters. Marlboro College art professor, potter,
painter, and performance artist, Roberto Lugo, writes "This machine kills hate"
on his potters wheel and describes why in a talk he gave to the National
Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.
See also List of guitars
References External links
Crash Course YouTube channel