Inside Bette Midler’s New Music Video: Broadway Cameos, Lyrics, and Viral Footage
By Sophia Al-Mansoor
Midler preserved Guthrie's core verses while tailoring key refrains to modern civic grievances. Lines celebrating workers taking back factories sit directly alongside pointed jabs at modern judicial appointments, corporate influence, and contemporary right-wing rhetoric. The chorus remains untouched: the repeated, rhythmic promise that fascism carries its own inevitable defeat.
Uncut sequences featured in the visual release highlight unscripted camaraderie among the cast. In one sequence, Pierce breaks character after missing an off-beat cue, drawing laughter from off-camera crew members before snapping back into an exaggerated theatrical scowl. These informal outtakes, left intentionally in the final edit, undercut any solemn self-importance.
Visual motifs borrow heavily from mid-century labor unions. Midler alternates between glamorous vintage attire and a plain work shirt, gesturing with oversized satirical props. Quick cutaways weave in clips of civil rights marches, suffragette protests, and union strikes, drawing a direct historical thread from 20th-century street movements to today's ballot boxes.
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