Happy 100th, Woody

Yesterday would have been Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, and nearly fifty years after his death in 1967, Guthrie's songs about the common man in 1930s middle America are as poignant as ever. Guthrie used hillbilly humor, broken English and a thick Oklahoma accent to tell his story because he wanted his message to be heard by the men and women he was singing for. Covering a Woody Guthrie song has become a badge of authenticity for American artists, and without Guthrie the landscape of American music would be wholly foreign.

Before Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash or Jeff Tweedy, there was Woody Guthrie.

I took a bath this morning in six war speeches, and a sprinkle of peace. Looks like ever body is declaring war against the forces of force. That's what you get for building up a big war machine. It scares your neighbors into jumping on you, and then of course they them selves have to use force, so you are against their force, and they're against yours. Look like the ring has been drawed and the marbles are all in. The millionaires has throwed their silk hats and our last set of drawers in the ring. The fuse is lit and the cannon is set, and somebody is in for a frailin. I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns. - Woody Guthrie

Woody's repertoire was beyond category. His songe make my head spin, made me want to gasp. For me it was an epiphany. It was like I had been in the dark and someone had turned on the main switch of a lightning conductor. - Bob Dylan

I love a good man outside the law,

Just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law.

- Woody Guthrie 

"This Land is Your Land" by Guthrie has become the sort of alternative National Anthem, and while Guthrie himself sang many versions of the song, the folk song sung by children in school across the nation usually has a few of his original verses missing: 

As I went walking I saw a sign there

And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."

But on the other side it didn't say nothing,

That side was made for you and me

Nobody living can ever stop me,

As I go walking that freedom highway;

Nobody living can ever make me turn back

This land was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;

By the relief office, I'd seen my people.

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,

Is this land made for you and me?

David Rawlings and Gillian Welch do a great version together. Here it is, inserted into Rawlings' song "I Hear Them All"

Here are a few more Guthrie originals and some subsequent covers. The songs are authentic in their narration of depression-era America, and while they are stories of the downtrodden, struggling, and heartbroken, there is always an underpinning of optimism and pride that hold everything together.