WOODY GUTHRIE

Songs & Prose of
The Prophet Singer

(narration by Jess Pearson, Real Audio, 222 KB)

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Last updated:
May 02, 2007

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CONTENTS

NEW WOODY GUTHRIE RELEASES/PUBLICATIONS

Discography

Song Lyrics

Some of Woody's Prose...

The Almanac Singers

Tributes

Audio

Links


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We must look beyond the songs to find the full importance of Woody Guthrie. As a song-maker, he has earned the stature he deserves. But his reputation as a writer, poet and philosopher is still underground and must he brought into the light. When his songs, poems, and essays are studied in our American literature classes, this omission may be righted.

Robert Shelton, from introduction to "Born To Win" by Woody Guthrie, 1967.

Pete Seeger, June 1967:

When Woody Guthrie was singing hillbilly songs on a little Los Angeles radio station in the late 1930s, he used to mail out a small mimeographed songbook to listeners who wanted the words to his songs, On the bottom of one page appeared the following:

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

Pete Seeger remembers Woody
(NPR, 1976, Real Audio, 2.2 MB)

"Born to win..."
(narration by Jess Pearson,
Real Audio, 190 KB)

What do I think of Woody as a writer? Well, he was a genius... all of a piece...
he learnt from everybody, and from everything..

Pete Seeger

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I write what I see,
I write what I've seen,
I write things that I just hope to see
Somewhere farther along

WOODY GUTHRIE, Apr. 4, 1948

  

Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.

John Steinbeck; quoted in Joe Klein, Woody Guthrie: A Life, London, 1981, p. 160.

"We Ain't Down Yet"
(narration by Jess Pearson,
Real Audio, 180 KB)

Woody's musical training came from songs he heard as a kid. Songs about outlaws and lovers and about everything else that was going down when they were written.

ARLO GUTHRIE

LISTEN TO MY RAW AND UNEDITED INTERVIEW WITH ARLO GUTHRIE (Sep 7, 2006)

WENZEL'S CD OF WOODY GUTHRIE SONGS

Woody Guthrie was an inspiration to all of us who knew his music and the very deep struggle that he went through in his life to remain always aware of his fellow human beings; his writing of the hopes and the anguishes and the joys of Americans has given us all courage to live and make music in the face of adversity, struggle and in rare times of calm.

JUDY COLLINS
Jan. 21,1976

Order available recordings right from this site:


woodyguthrie.org

I always thought one man, the lone balladeer with the guitar, could blow an entire army off the stage if he knew what he was doing...
To the aspiring songwriter and singer I say, Disregard all the current stuff, forget it, you're better off if you read John Keats, Melville, and listen to Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie.

BOB DYLAN
booklet for "Biograph", 1985