Among new movie deals, Offline Entertainment has optioned Woody, Cisco and
Me, a memoir by Jim Longhi that tells of his dangerous life in the wartime
Merchant Marine with famous folk musicians Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1298/19_247/62102076/p1/article.jhtml

book review: http://www.usmm.org/bookreview.html#anchor532229



<center><FONT COLOR="#000080">--- Edited 1 times, lastly by janet on Aug 07, 2000 ---</FONT></center>

i have tried to get the book in england,however,it seems to be out of print.woodiewoods.

Looks like there's an April 2004 edition out there now:

http://www.bordersstores.com/search/tit ... pe=Keyword

In the New York Times 09/19/04 Page 29
Link at
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/nyregion/19towns.html

There is an article about the sloop Woody Guthrie

This Boat Is Your Boat, This Boat Is My Boat, and the Hudson Is Beckoning
By PETER APPLEBOME

The part of the article that caused me to laugh was the paragraph:

"This thing does not go quickly dead into the wind,'' Kip Touraine, the captain du jour, said in respectful understatement as the Woody Guthrie set sail one still, humid evening last week."

The reason for my laughter was that last night before I went to sleep I had just read the portion of Jim Longhi's book, "Woody, Cisco, & Me With Woody Guthrie in the Merchant Marine" in which he describes in all its hilariously funny and harrowing details how Woody built the "Woody Guthrie Anticyclone and Ship Speeder-Upper Aerodynamic Wind Machine." to help speed up the ship they were on as the ship moved across the Atlantic while under attack by submarines. I won't say more because you have to read it to fully appreciate it. As a famous American (at least famous to those of us on this board) once said, "I'm leaving a lot out."

Maybe that is what the sloop Woody Guthrie should add as it heads "dead into the wind" up the Hudson; A Woody Guthrie Anticyclone and Ship Speeder-Upper Aerodynamic Wind Machine. ("Maybe not" also words of the famous American)

Anyone who hasn't read Longhi's book should check it out IMO.

At the end of Jim Longhi's book "Woody,Cisco & Me the author mentions a song "Seamen Three" which he says Woody wrote about the three of them.

After reading, and thoroughly enjoying the book, I would really like to hear the song.

Does anyone know if that song was ever recorded, and if so, is it available anywhere today?

Thanks for any info.

At the end of Jim Longhi's book "Woody, Cisco & Me with Woody Guthrie in the Merchant Marine." Longhi mentions a song Woody wrote about the three of them titled "Seamen Three"

I have been trying to find out more about it and got some info from folk perfomer Andy Irvine who said he had recorded it on an album called "Folk Friends 2" which he said was recorded in Germany in 1982.

He said he got the song from a book called "The Nearly Complete Collection of the Songs of Woody Guthrie" which came out about 40 years ago.

Does anyone know if that "Nearly Complete" songbook of Woody's stuff is still available anywhere? Or Andy Irvine's "Folk Friends 2" album?

Thanks for any info

Jim, "Seaman Three" is a great song. I've transcribed the lyrics as performed by Andy Irvine on guitar and harmonica on the "Folk Friends 2" CD. Andy contributed notes to the CD booklet and wrote: "I spent my youth listening to old records of Woody Guthrie. For years I learned to copy his guitar playing and singing and eventually had it down to a fine art. I was especially good at duplicating his mistakes! Jack Elliott once gave me a shirt that had belonged to Woody which I wore until it fell off my back. I learned this song one winter's day, many years ago in the day of 'Sweeny's Men,' sitting in the hovel we all shared, freezing and starving to death but burning bright with youthful idealism..."

Jim, the first, second and fourth lines of the song remain the same through out the song, the third line changes in each verse. I'll write out the first verse complete, the following lyrics are the third line substitutions:

SEAMEN THREE (WOODY GUTHRIE)

We were seaman three
Cisco, Jimmy & Me
Shipped out to beat you fascists
Across our lands & seas

We out sung all you Nazis...
We helped to haul that TNT...
We talked up for the NMU...
Not many pretty lassies did we miss...
If you ever saw one, you'd see all three...
The ocean's still ringin' with the songs we sang...
Keep a'working and a'singin' 'til this world gets free...

Hope this helps,
Hank
hiwaywin@verizon.net

Hank,
Many, many thanks for the info above on Seamen Three!!!!
jim murphy