Utah Phillips, 1935-2008
The "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest":
Legendary Folk Musician, Activist
Utah Phillips, the legendary folk musician and peace and labor activist, has died at the age of seventy-three.
Over the span of nearly four decades, Utah Phillips worked in what he referred to as “the Trade,” performing tirelessly throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The son of labor organizers, Phillips was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies.
As a teenager, he ran away from home and started living as a hobo who rode the rails and wrote songs about his experiences.
In 1956, he joined the Army and served in the Korean War, an experience he would later refer to as the turning point of his life.
In 1968, he ran for the US Senate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket.
For the past twenty-one years he lived in Nevada City, where he started a nationally syndicated folk music radio show. He also helped found the Hospitality House homeless shelter and the Peace and Justice Center. We spend the hour with an interview with Phillips from January 2004.[/b]
'They fight with money and we fight with time,
and they’re going to run out of money before we run out of time.'
'I think that we’re being frog-marched into a corporate fascist takeover of the country.'
I't does appear to me that these fascists that have taken over have got to get—we’ve got to get rid of them. They’re not Republicans, and they’re not Democrats up there. You know, they’re something else. They’re corporate fascists.'
-- Utah Phillips, 1935-2008
Utah's Page
A Short Jog Through A Long Memory
The Utah Phillips Appreciation and Information site.
I have studied the presidency carefully; I have seen that our best presidents were the do-nothing presidents: Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding. When you have a president who does things, we are all in serious trouble. If he does anything at all -- if he gets up at night to go to the bathroom -- somehow, mystically, trouble will ensue. I guarantee that if I am elected, I will take over the White House, hang out, shoot pool, scratch my ass, and not do a damn thing. Which is to say, if you want something done, don't come to me to do it for you; you got to get together and figure out how to do it yourselves. Is that a deal?
-- Utah Phillips
