Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-1967) is the archetypal American folksinger. Irrascible, irreverant, irrepressible, often irresponsible - he virtually abandoned his first wife and children for a musician's life of highways and promises. His extraordinary autobiography, Bound for Glory, tells of his travels from coast to coast, often hitching train rides and sometimes doing agricultural work side by side with migrant workers. For a time, he had a radio show in California, for which he composed songs sometimes daily. During the 1930's, the government hired him to write songs as part of the WPA's Columbia River Electrification project. These songs included "Roll on Columbia." During the 40s, he came to New York and was a member of the Almanac singers along with Pete Seeger.

In classic folk tradition, Woody often stole melodies from popular songs for his own compositions, including his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land" and "Jesus Christ." The latter, takes on an additional ironic sense if you recognize the melody from the outlaw ballad "Jesse James."

Guthrie fell ill to a congenital disease and spent his final years in a New Jersey hospital. Among other visitors to his bedside was the young Bob Dylan, who in many ways modeled himself after his idol.

Immortal Songs

• "This Land Is Your Land": Lyrics and MIDI tune from The Mudcat Cafe's incredible database, Digitrad.
• "Deportee" (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos; tune by Martin Hoffman): lyrics and tune from Digitrad
• "Pastures of Plenty": lyrics from Digitrad
• "Do Re Mi": lyrics from Digitrad
• "Hard Travelin'": lyrics and tune from Digitrad
• "Tom Joad": Here's lyrics from Digitrad.
• "Roll on Columbia": lyrics from Digitrad.
• "Jesus Christ": lyrics and tune from Digitrad
• "Dust Bowl Blues"
• "Vigilante Man"
• "Union Maid": Here's lyrics and tune from Digitrad.
• Pretty Boy Floyd: lyrics and tune from Digitrad.

Best Books

• Bound for Glory (New American Library, 1995 Reissue edition. Buy it online). A must read.
  Pastures of Plenty (autobiographical writings - currently out of print)

Essential Discs

• The Asch Recordings (4 vols.) Pretty much the complete, essential mind-boggling legendary corpus of work is here. Contains all the great songs plus some rare gems, including the epic "Hannukah Dance" which show another side of Woody.
• Library of Congress Recordings (3 CD set). This set documents a legendary 1940 session recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax, and includes Woody speaking in addition to unpremeditated versions of many classic songs.
• Dust Bowl Ballads (1964). A true concept album, all the songs are tied together by their historical subject - the great dust storm disaster of the Great Depression years.
• The Columbia River Collection. This collection as important for the songs as for the history behind them. Contains songs written during a one month government-sponsored project, including "Roll On Columbia" and "Pastures of Plenty."
• The Original Vision, A Vision Shared. The first album contains songs of Woody Guthrie and Ledbelly performed by the legends themselves. The second offers tunes by the pair covered by contemporary artists including Springsteen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
• Till We Outnumber 'Em. A newer tribute album of Guthrie covers by the same crew as above plus Ani DiFranco, The Indigo Girls, Billy Bragg and Arlo.

Heirs

Woody's Children is a common way of talking about the generation of songwriters who followed Woody in writing songs about social justice. Of the countless singersongwriters who have been deeply influenced by Guthrie are:

• Bob Dylan. - here's a page that will lead you to a treasure trove of resources on the net.
• Phil Ochs - topical, ragged, Ochs took to heart the idea of the songwriter as journalist. This page has info andlinks.
• Arlo Guthrie, achieved immortality in the late 60's with his unique 18-minute anti-war song/story "Alice's Restaurant."
• Ani DiFranco
• Billy Bragg & Wilco: Bragg has his own brand of in-your-face labor music, but with Wilco he has undertaken a project to set Woody's unpublished lyrics to music on Mermaid Avenue. Volume 1 was released in 1999; Vol 2 came out in June 2000. Check out the Woody page on Wilco's site for info. Also, at Amazon.com you can listen to streaming audio of 100 minutes of Bragg in concert at the Gene Autry museum, playing songs from these two CDs.
• Michelle Shocked
• Bruce Springsteen

Sites to Check Out

• All Music Guide's expert music journalist Bill Ruhlman gives a brief account of Guthrie's achievement and his contribution to folk music; the page also gives a wealth of info on his complete discography and related artists.
• Another quick thumbnail bio focuses more on events in Guthrie's life - includes a couple of Real Audio samples.
• For lyrics and many melodies, go to Digitrad.
• The Songs of Woody Guthrie more lyrics, with songs separated by theme and much historical information.
• Take a virtual trip with me through the Woody Guthrie Archives via my photoessay on the traveling exhibit when it was at the Museum of the City of New York in April 2000. The Guthrie Foundation and archives has their own site too:
• The Songs and Writings of Woody Guthrie Excellent academic site includes lyrics and detailed notes on many of Guthrie's most famous songs as well as some rare ones.

Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com

 

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