Search - Woody Guthrie :: Dust Bowl Ballads

"Woody Guthrie: "Sing as loud and as long as you like"

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 03/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Dust Bowl Ballads" was apparently the most successful album Woody Guthrie ever made, especially since it gained him public acclaim. This reissue of the 1940 album contains Guthrie's original liner notes in which he declares: "This bunch of songs . . . are 'Oakie' songs, 'Dust Bowl' Songs, 'Migracious' songs, about my folks and my relatives, about a jillion of 'em, that got hit by the drought, the dust, the wind, the banker, and the landlord, and the police, all at the same time . . . and it was these things all added up that caused us to pack our wife and kids into our little rattletrap jalopies, and light out down the Highway--in every direction, mostly west to California."

What stands out most for me on this album are the two parts of "Tom Joad." Obviously Guthrie was impressed by both John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," and John Ford's motion picture, which followed quickly on the heels of publication. In just under 7 minutes time Guthrie relates the story of Tom Joad, in many ways a story song similar to "The Great Dust Bowl (Dust Storm Disaster)" or "Pretty Boy Floyd." What strikes me is that there is no explicit argument as to the meaning or import of the story, as if in telling the tale the point is obvious. Like reading scripture or even the old poets reciting the epic poems, the audience (or congregation if you will), recognizes the moral of the tale. Of course the Oakies would not have to be told the lesson of their lives. Singing the songs and hearing them sung validates their pain and suffering by making sure it is remembered and not blown away on the winds. Once you start thinking along these lines it is hard not to think of Guthrie's folk songs as the most sacred of our secular music.

Whatever they did to remaster these songs is great; they are clear and clean but still retain a sense of the time in which they recorded. In addition to Guthrie's original linear notes, which are quite extensive and extremely insightful, Dave Marsh provides a more contemporary take on the man and his songs, making a compelling argument that "Dust Bowl Ballads" was when the singer "became the voice of his people and in a way that remains intelligible many years later." It is always said that Guthrie was not inclined to sing the same song the same way twice, and this album offers proof of that with an alternate version of "Talking Dust Bowl Blues." In many ways an album like this, where there is a clear thematic unity, represents Guthrie at his best better than a greatest hits collection. If you all you have head of the American folk tradition are Dylan and Springsteen, those who carry on the tradition, then it is about time you went back to the beginning and listed to the stories and songs of Woody Guthrie."

To understand Woody, you should own this for sure...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 12/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Woody got a record deal with RCA Victor, and miraculously they let him be himself and do his own songs on a multi-record set of 78-RPM discs. In the spring of l940, this collection hit the stores.It didn't sell much in that Depression year...some say 500 sets, some say l,000...but those who responded to these songs must have been changed forever, musically if not politically. It can be argued that Woody, with this effort, invented the "singer/songwriter" genre, the "concept album" and contemporary folk-protest style, all at once. It is offered now on CD with great sound for a wonderful price. I cannot imagine anyone who likes "folk music" or who has an interest in Depression-era America not choosing to buy it. NOW. Today. From this site. On impulse. Because I said so. Because it is the right thing to do."