He would pull out his gun and show it to me, and one time, as diffidently as I could, I said, "You know Gary, you are blind. Don't you think maybe it's not such a good idea..." He said, "If I can hear it, I can shoot it" - Rev. Gary Davis remembered by Dave Van Ronk, in The Mayor of MacDougal Street
Hi all, I have recently been returning to the songs of Woody Guthrie. I think he was a wonderful writer, who when he was as good as he could be, was about as good as Mark Twain. I like his use of the guitar for accompaniment, and the people who specialize in his songs quite often do a really good job with them, too. My favorite version of "1913 Massacre" is by Jack Elliott. The chord progression is not complex, but occasional notes are held so that phrase lengths are variable, and Jack Elliott's pattern picking is beneficially monotonous. I think it is a perfectly amazing song. The way Woody Guthrie set the scene just draws you in completely. Here are the lyrics, as best as I can hear them. Here is Jack Elliott's performance:
Take a trip with me, in 1913 To Calumet, Michigan in the copper country I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall And the miners are having their big Christmas ball
I'll take you in a door and up a high stair Singing and dancing is heard everywhere I'll let you shake hands with the people you see And watch the kids dance 'round the big Christmas tree
There's talking and laughing and songs in the air And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere Before you know it, you're friends with us all And you're dancing around and around in the hall
You ask about work and you ask about pay They'll tell you make less than a dollar a day Working their copper claims, risking their lives So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives
A little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet To hear all this fun you would not realize That the Copper Boss thugmen are milling outside
The Copper Boss thugs stuck their heads in the door One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!" A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing. Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing."
A few people rushed, and there's only a few It's just the thugs and the scabs foolin' you A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down But the thugs held the door and he could not get out
And then others followed, a hundred or more But most everybody remained on the floor The gun thugs they laughed at their murderous joke And the children were smothered on the stairs by the door
Such a terrible sight I never did see We carried our children back up to their tree The scabs outside still laughed at their spree And the children that died, there were seventy-three
The piano played a slow funeral tune And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon The parents, they cried, and the miners they moaned To see what your greed for money has done
Edited 11/11 to pick up correction from alyoung
All best, Johnm
« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 06:15:15 AM by Johnm »
Hi all, Another particular favorite for me of Woody Guthrie's songs is "Deportee". Like Bob Dylan after him, Woody often set new lyrics to pre-existing melodies. If that was the case with "Deportee", I don't know the source of the melody, but it certainly sounds Mexican. If Woody wrote the melody as well as the lyrics, congratulations to him for coming up with a melody that so perfectly matches his lyrics and the story he was telling. The version of the song that I worked from was performed by Cisco Houston, singing and accompanying himself on guitar, with Woody Guthrie backing him on mandolin. I like the earnestness of Cisco Houston's vocal, and his chord choices. Some of the more modern versions do what seem to be inappropriate things to the chord progression, at least to my taste. Cisco backs himelf out of C in standard tuning, capoed at the first fret. (More likely, Cisco was tuned high or tuned low, since it is unlikely that Woody Guthrie was playing the mandolin out of Db.) Here is a link to the Cisco Houston version:
Here are the lyrics:
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting The oranges are stacked in their creosote dumps They're flying them back to that Mexico border To pay all their wages to wade back again
CHORUS: Goodbye to you, Juan, goodbye Rosalita Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
My Father's own Father, he waded that river They took all the money he made in his life My brothers and sisters come, working the fruit trees And they rode on the trucks 'til they took down and died
CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
Well, some are illegal and some are not wanted Our work contract's out and we've got to move on Six hundred miles to that Mexico border They chased us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves
CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
We died in your hills and we died on your deserts We died in your valleys, we died on your plains We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes Both sides of that river, we died just the same
CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon Like a fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? The radio says they are just deportees
CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? To fall like dry leaves and rot on my topsoil And be known by no name except "deportees"
CHORUS: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita Adios, mi amigo, Jesus and Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big aeroplane And all they will call you will be "deportee"
All best, Johnm
« Last Edit: June 04, 2017, 03:27:06 PM by Johnm »
Hi all, Another favorite Woody Guthrie song for me is "Do Re Mi", which Ry Cooder did a great version of, years ago. The version I worked from is Woody Guthrie's own. Here is a link to the performance I used as a model:
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leaving home every day Beating the hot old dusty way to the California line 'Cross the desert sands they roll, getting out of that old Dust Bowl They think they're going to a sugar bowl, but here is what they find:
Now, the police at the port of entry say, "You're number fourteen thousand for today.
CHORUS: Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, If you ain't got the do re mi Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee California is a Garden of Eden A paradise to live in or see But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi
You wanta buy you a home or farm, that can't deal nobody harm Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are You better take a-this little tip from me
'Cause I look through the want ads every day But the headlines on the papers always say
CHORUS: If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, You ain't got the do re mi Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee California is a Garden of Eden A paradise to live in or see But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi
Hey John, I think Woody Guthrie wrote Deportees as a poem after the event in 1948. From what I have read the Mexican-like melody was written 10 years later by a school teacher named Marion Hoffman and was popularized in the folk scene by Pete Seeger performing it. I think Cisco's version is from 1963, so it is probably not Woody playing mandolin with him as he would have been incapacitated at this time with Huntington's Chorea. Thanks for including some of Woody's songs. Have you ever heard his song New York Town which has a melody based on Lemon's One Dime Blues?
Hi Lightnin', Thanks for the information on Marian Hoffman. I do think it was Woody playing mandolin because it sounds like his playing on other recordings. Plus, Cisco died in 1961, so the recording couldn't have been from 1963. Yes, I am familiar with Woody's "New York Town"--hey, hey, hey, hey. All best, Johnm
I think he was a wonderful writer, who when he was as good as he could be, was about as good as Mark Twain.
Powerful stuff and as timely as ever. Most folks here probably know he wrote a great book: Bound for Glory. On a personal note, I first heard Woody on his Library of Congress sessions put out by Elektra when I was about 12 or 13 (more than 50 years ago...) Listening to him sing and tell stories to Lomax was a life altering event for a kid born in the oil patch whose folks worked the oil boomtowns of SW Kansas and NE Oklahoma.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 01:36:25 PM by eric »
John, Thanks for starting this thread. Woody's been a part of my life longer than most musicians thanks to my father who introduced me to him, his songs and his spirit when I was just beginning to learn about life.
Woody is one of those artists who is continually surprising you as you discover more and more of the words and songs and drawings he left behind. My biggest surprise came when I heard 'Remember the Mountain Bed' from the Billy Bragg and Wilco album 'Mermaid Avenue Vol II'. The lyrics are possibly some of the most beautiful and heartwrenching that the American soil has ever inspired. I know Woody had a long time love of Walt Whitman and the lyrics to 'Remember the Mountain Bed' certainly show it. I remember reading way back somewhere (where I forget) that some (or maybe just one) speculate that Woody had more of these types of songs (love songs I suppose) but that those who recorded him the most were mainly interested in labor and travel and historic story songs and so Woody didn't get a chance to fully display his array of subject matter. That may be true but it could be Woody just never got around to it or perhaps felt songs like these were too personal to share.
Anyway. I can't let a discussion of Woody lyrics pass by without mentioning mountain bed. Sadly Woody never recorded it himself but I think Billy Bragg and Wilco made the right choice in providing a fairly simple backdrop that lets the words pull you through the song.
The lyrics can be found at the below site though I found a few very slight differences in how Jeff Tweedy is singing them and there's really not much you can't make out from the way he delivers the lines. http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Remember_The_Mountain_Bed.htm
Thanks again John, I always enjoy your deep delving into America's songbag.
Lew
« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 05:53:32 AM by TenBrook »
Thanks very much for the catch on the lyrics to "1913 Massacre", Al. I've never heard that line right in all these years, and now I do. I've made the fix. Thanks! Thanks as well to Stuart, Lightnin', Eric and Lew and all who make contributions here. I've been thinking of starting this thread for a long time, but it seems especially pertinent now, somehow. All best, Johnm
Hey John, Not trying to argue here 'cause you know I love it. I had to do a little sleuthing here because I enjoy being full of "useless and pointless knowledge". Deportees was from the Cisco Houston Vanguard LP "Sings The Songs Of Woody Guthrie" which got released in 1961, just prior to Cisco's death. The musical accompaniment is by Eric Weissburg (later of Dueling Banjos fame) on the fiddle, banjo and mandolin. I imagine he listened to a lot of the earlier Woody and Cisco Asch recordings to learn to play in Woody's simplified mandolin style.
Well, good on you for tracking that down, Lightnin'! I think my sister used to have that album, but I haven't seen it in years. Both that one and the one Jack Elliott did on Prestige of all-Woody Guthrie songs were awfully good records. Thanks! All best, Johnm
Growing up the son of an Okie, less than 50 miles from Grand Coulee Dam, an Okie who more or less followed that "Grapes of Wrath" "Bound for Glory" migration route as a very young man (13 or so) I have listened to Woody's music for a very long time. (Although, my dad could never accept him borrowing the tune for "Irene, Goodnight" for "Roll On Columbia" - he though Lead Belly's music should be left to Lead Belly.)
To me, Woody was more of a collector and poet than a singer/songwriter...hurt my dad a lot when Woody died.
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She looked like a horse eating an apple through a wire fence.