UTAH PHILLIPS: I've Got to Know

Utah Phillips

I've Got to Know

© 1992 AK Press

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Spouting, fulminating, and singing about war, peace, pacifism, and anarchy, Utah focuses on the Gulf War using songs, poems, and rants that apply equally to the invasion of Iraq and war in general.

notes

Utah Phillips has crafted a fascinating show out of his life. In the course of seventy years he has labored as a dishwasher, archivist, printer, and warehouseman; soldiered in the Korean War; lived as a tramp (he is still a Grand Duke of Hoboes), and for the past 36 years made his way telling stories and singing songs. He has the wit, humor, bite, and intelligence of a Mark Twain or a Will Rogers, and behind his "Everyman" appearance is a consummate artist. Peppered with one-liners and offhand philosophical commentary, Utah's revealing stories, about such spirited American characters as Charley Goodnight, Mother Jones, and Idaho Blackie, tell our true history and connect us to American traditions that are genuinely ours.
Utah Phillips is described as "a national treasure, a writer of haunting songs, a storyteller of hilarious presence and subtle depth, a union organizer, historian and scholar, a Celtic-Yiddish bard, a Pleistocene bon vivant, a post-modern ne'er-do-well, and a heck of an engineer." A 40-year member of the Industrial Workers of the World, he is the most entertaining labor troubadour of our time, leading his audience on an emotional rollercoaster with side-splitting storytelling and fire-breathing working class songs. According to one reviewer, "Phillips exemplifies some of the traits which Americans most value: an open and inquisitive mind, a daring heart, and a sharp but humorous tongue." The Boston Globe said, "Phillips above all is a consummate showman, a master of the theater...Phillips has a genius for making people laugh and care at the same time." He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the North American Folk Alliance, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Labor Heritage Foundation, and the Joe Hill Award from the Labor Heritage Foundation-AFL-CIO, among many others.

reviews

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  • Children, and adults too should be encouraged to listen to Utah Phillips
    author: Albert Liem

    I am ashamed to confess that I had never heard of Utah Phillips until after his death. Simple and yet profound wisdom. I am trying to think of ways of encouraging people to listen to Utah Phillips as a means of countering the corporate propaganda that drown us daily.

  • Utah Phillips Rocks
    author: J.

    This is my favorite Utah Phillips collection, or at least on par with 'Fellow Workers' and 'The Past didn't Go Anywhere', but sans Ani DiFranco. The biggest problem with our country is our history is all but forgotten, our real history. In this album, Utah captures that history as he does so well and brings it back to life, but with a nearly exclusive emphasis on the forgotten lessons of wars fought and lives lost long ago. This collection is even more relevant today then it was when he made it during the first gulf war. Connect with your past, protect your future, pick up what Utah's puttin' down because the title says it all- YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW. "It'll save your life..."

  • Dynamite! Utah says what has to be said.
    author: Capnjack

    Just discovered this CD. Best (only?)set of music about George H.W. Bush's war on Iraq.

  • Wow! This one's got it all!
    author: Zi

    Holds truth to power, educates, informs, has humor, and enough heart to reach all around the world -- a truly terrific cd! And I love the way it manages to still be so intensely personal.

  • author: Hobosteve

    One of the most, inetelligent and deep comments about the first Gulf war made by an American artist. THnak you for that.

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