Dust Bowl Ballads

Woody Guthrie’s first recordings were made by Alan Lomax, the famous folklorist that I wrote about in my last post; they had several hours of recordings and conversations between them.  His first album, Dust Bowl Ballads (1940) followed.  It is regarded as one of the very first concept albums and was Woody’s most successful record. 

The best known song on the Woody Guthrie album Dust Bowl Ballads is “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh” (called “Dusty Old Dust” on the album).  The Weavers had a hit with “So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)” in 1951, taking it to #4 on the pop music charts and becoming one of their “staple” songs.  From Wikipedia:  “The repetitive chorus has been described as ‘a witty, black retort, utterly negative and apocalyptic’”:

     We talked of the end of the world, and then

     We’d sing a song an’ then sing it again

     We’d sit for an hour an’ not say a word

     And then these words would be heard:

     So long, it’s been good to know yuh

Another song on Dust Bowl Ballads, “Pretty Boy Floyd” has one of Woody Guthrie’s most famous lines.  Like the outlaw couple depicted in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd was a bank robber during the Depression era.  While he was elevated to “Public Enemy No. 1” by the FBI following the shooting of John Dillinger, many see Floyd as a tragic figure who was a victim of his times. 

“Pretty Boy Floyd” also highlighted the outlaw’s generosity, which was attributed to Bonnie and Clyde as well in the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway movie.  In part, the lyrics of this song are: 

     Yes, he took to the trees and timber
     To live a life of shame;
     Every crime in Oklahoma
     Was added to his name.

     But a many a starvin’ farmer
     The same old story told
     How the outlaw paid their mortgage
     And saved their little homes.

     Others tell you ’bout a stranger
     That come to beg a meal,
     Underneath his napkin
     Left a thousand-dollar bill. 

Sure, anyone could say that Woody Guthrie was romanticizing a criminal.  But there is no denying the power of the closing verses as Woody Guthrie points his finger at a greater enemy: 

     Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered

     I’ve seen lots of funny men;

     Some will rob you with a six-gun,

     And some with a fountain pen.

     And as through your life you travel,

     Yes, as through your life you roam,

     You won’t never see an outlaw

     Drive a family from their home. 

I have written previously of another song on Dust Bowl Ballads, “I Ain’t Got No Home”.  Although Bob Dylan idolized him, it is one of the very few Woody Guthrie songs that Dylan recorded.  Also, “I Ain’t Got No Home” virtually shares a title and many of the lyrics with one of the songs by past UARA Ron Franklin, “We Ain’t Got No Home”.  It is hard not to simply list the total lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s songs, they are so organically written; here are two choice verses from “I Ain’t Got No Home”: 

     My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road,

     A hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod;

     Rich man took my home and drove me from my door

     And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.

     Now as I look around, it’s mighty plain to see

     This world is such a great and a funny place to be;

     Oh, the gamblin’ man is rich an’ the workin’ man is poor,

     And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.

In the same time period that he released Dust Bowl Ballads, Woody Guthrie was one of the co-founders of the Almanac Singers, which were active between 1940 and 1943. 

(March 2015)