Woody Guthrie

Woody At Home – Vol 1 + 2

Shamus Records

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born on July 14th, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. Over the decades his songs have run around the world like a fast train on a well-oiled track. They’ve become the folk song standards of the nation,  known and performed in many languages throughout the world. Woody wrote  over 3,000 songs in his lifetime, hundreds of which have become staples in the  canon of American music. He inspired several generations both politically and musically with songs such as “This Land Is Your Land, written in February 1940. Woody was also a radio host and father to Arlo Guthrie. Since Woody’s passing on October 3rd, 1967, three generations of Guthrie’s family have been the  administrators of Woody’s creative legacy. First through Woody’s wife Marjorie,  then daughter Nora Guthrie, and now granddaughter Anna Canoni, they have  consistently reminded us that Woody’s work is enlightening, inspiring, edifying, and most importantly current – spotlighting Woody Guthrie as a significant  guiding voice and citizen of the world.

Woody Guthrie arrived in New York City on February 16th, 1940. Folk Music was just beginning to get established in Greenwich Village. After being rejected by most publishing companies in Tin Pan Alley in New York, Woody got his first publishing deal in 1950 with a new startup, TRO, founded by music publisher Howie Richmond “I heard Woody perform on a number of occasions before  meeting him at a hootenanny in New York. It was love and joy for me as I spent a  couple of hours sharing his repertoire. Using two-channel tape recorders tapes  were made in his red brick apartment in Beach Haven, Brooklyn in October,1950. The first tape was submitted to TRO in January of 1951.

Pete Seeger once said “anything worth discussing was worth a song to Woody”. John Steinbeck wrote “Woody is just Woody…He is a voice with a guitar, harsh ..and nasal, there is nothing sweet about Woody…but there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression, I think we call this the American spirit.  “This Land Is Your Land” is a version unique to Woody’s Home Tape, as he sings “As I go walking, my ribbon of highway, I see all around me, my blue, blue skyway everywhere around me, this wind-a-keeps a-whistlin’, this land was made for you and me, This land is your land, and this land is my land, from the redwood forest  to the New York Island, from the snow-capped mountain to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me. I’m a chasin’ my shadow a, All across this road map, to the wheat field wavin’, to the cornfield dancin’, as I keep a walkin’, the wind  keeps a-talkin’, this land was made for you and me”.

“Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done”, I had previously heard sung by another,  but I can’t remember who sung it, as Woody chimes “I’m just a lonesome traveler, the Great Historical Bum, highly educated from history I have come, I built the rock of ages, ’twas in the year of One, and that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done”. On the narrative “Howie, I’d Like To Talk To Yuh”, Woody begins “Howie I’d like to talk to you a couple of words about this idea of changing songs around… I have never yet put a song on tape or record, or wrote it down, or printed it out, or typed it up, or anything else that I really thought was a through and a finished and  done song, and it couldn’t be improved on, couldn’t be changed around, couldn’t be made better. That is ten times more true of all these sample tapes…that all of these things are gear-shiftable, changeable…that is all I got to say”.

On “Deportee” Woody chants “Your crops are all in, and your fruit balls are rottening, your oranges are stacked  in your creosote dumps, you’re flying me back to your ol’ Mexican border, to pay all my money to walk back again, Goodbye to you, Juan; Goodbye Rosalita; Adios mis amigos, Jesus and Marie; I don’t have a name when I ride this big airplane, they just call me, ‘One more deportee’. On “Great Ship” Woody cries out “Lusitania was her name, and great was her fame, and great was the shame, when this good ship went down…I looked at my clock…felt the iceberg had shock, felt the whole ship a-rockin, when this good ship went down”.

On “Pastures of Plenty” Woody moans “It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hand has hoed, and my poor feet have traveled a hot and a dusty road, out of your dustbowl and westward we rolled, Lord, your mountains are hot, and your desert is cold, I worked in  your orchards of peaches and prunes, I sleep on the ground, ‘neath the light of your moon, on the edge of your city you’ll see us and then, We come with the dust and we  go with the wind”.

“Jesus Christ”, Woody groans “Jesus Christ was a man, he traveled through this land, A hard-working man and brave, He said to the rich, ‘share your goods with the poor’,  so they laid Jesus Christ in His grave…when Jesus come to town, all the working folks around, Believed what he did say, it was these bankers and these preachers, they  nailed him on the cross, and they laid Jesus Christ in his grave”. “I’m A Child Ta Fight”, is the closest Woody comes to a Fabulous Thunderbirds type blues, “I’m rude, I’m tuff, I’m double tuff, cast iron through and through, my eyeballs both are forty-fours, and my teeth are thirty-twos”.

On “Innocent Man”, Woody belts “An Innocent Man, Went down that chain-gang line; An innocent man, Is a pretty hard man to find, an Innocent man, done went to Alcatraz; that innocent man, got a good long time to pass”. “I’ve Got To Know” Woody shouts, “I’ve got to know, yea, I’ve got to know friend, Hungry lips ask me wherever I got Comrades  and friends, all falling around me! I’ve got to know, yes! I’ve got to know!.

“Backdoor Bum and The Big Landlord” , went a walking side by side to the pearly gates,  “the bum rolled over and went to sleep, and the landlord stayed awake, gold and silver  he counted all night…the landlord couldn’t keep up with the Bum, ‘Cause his moneybag pulled him down!…upon reaching the gates the Bum spoke “Passport nor coins I’ve not got, The bum joshed the guard at the gate, ‘I’ll blow you a tune on my panpipe flute’, all  the hands passed him down…the Big landlord was a half a day late, holding coins in  both of his hands, One said, our city is built of gold, your coins you can never spend, the landlord yelled ‘I’ll buy this place! Take me to the boss of the Gate! I’ll buy me a  Judge Medina or two, raise your rents and kick you out in the street. The guard pushed a button and opened a shaft; he shot the landlord to Hell, now the Devil is dipping his fork in the gold. But the Landlord’s dollars did melt”.

“I Just Want To Tell You Fellers”, is another spoken narrative to Howie Richmond, this  sounds like the best tape I made so far…while Marje was out working…glad to see him back from Mexico. You can get an awful good bowl of chili right here in New York”. On “Peace Call” is an anthem that still hold true today, “Peace, peace, peace, I hear the  bugle sounding, Looming around my land, my city and my town; Peace, peace, peace …I hear the horn and voice ring louder, Now my bugle calls for peace”.

On “Ain’t Afraid To Die”, Woody sings “I ain’t afraid to die, I’m afraid t’die by myself”.  “Buoy Bells From Trenton” “Bling, blang, blong, I can ear them…ringing for my boys, framed up to die…just for being born with a dark skin on your face”, as Woody sings of racial inequality. “Einstein Theme Song” is another narrative, Einstein said “this  whole world is like a little rubber ball, he said if you just stuck a whole bunch of hat  pins through it, that no hat pin would point up or down, or either West or South…you  couldn’t hate anybody that was from them places”.

“One Little Thing An Atom Can’t Do”, “it can’t hug and kiss your cheek, it can’t call  you honey dumpling, no that’s one little thing the atom can’t do”. “Forsaken Lover”, “I will tell you a sad story, I’m going to tell this story true, About an old forsaken lover, of my heart broke sad, and blue…I’m your old forsaken, on this riverbank alone, my  eyes have never been dry one minute, since that war took you and gone”.

“My ID & My Ego”, “Ever’ time I see you shakin’ it around, Ever’ time I see you  wiggle it around, My blood runs hot and my words freeze cold; My id starts chasin’ my ego ’round”. “Lifebelt Washed Up On The Shore”, “I walked on my beach sand here today, before the crowd comes down to swim and play; I see a raggedy bundle colored blue and gray, ‘Twas a life belt washed up from the sea…your strings and  cords are tied”.   “Funny Mountain”, “Funny Mountain, sunny mountain, give me back my lover; my  love that you stole from me, Funny Mountain, sunny mountain, give me back my true lover; the love you hasted away”. On “You Better Get Ready” Woody croons “I had a dream the other night , Sing on, brother, sing; About this war we got to  fight…you better get ready brother, you better get ready sister, you better get ready ’cause you may be called tonight”.

Woody’s recordings are mono, and they truly capture moments in time…they were  recorded onto a slow speed quarter-inch analog tape over 70 years ago. With the  worst ‘noise’ out of the way , and the guitar and voice better balanced, a gain was used to sculpt and refine the recording. Very little equalization or compression was  used, Thank you Anna Canoni, Howie Richmond, and of course Woody Guthrie.

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor/Making A Scene

 

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