Woody Guthrie is best known for his song “This land is your land,” (i.e., “this land is my land”). But he isn’t even very well known for that, not nearly as known as the song is. His greatest goal was to show that “this land is made for you and me.” He was a true troubadour, a folk singer, a traveler and a good man. He had many friends, many famous friends. He is the one who, above all others, inspired Robert Zimmerman to become Bob Dylan.
He influenced greatly the lives of Pete Seeger, Terry & McGhee, George Washington, Abe Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, Plato & Aristotle, Julius Caesar, and Orville Redenbacher. Well, maybe not the latter seven but the other three and many others. He is a pioneer, a man who believed in equal rights for every individual, back when that wasn’t a popular philosophy.
He sided with the blacks when that was uncouth. He spoke up for the little man. He did what he could to make this world a better place. And here I am to do the same, inspired by him, by revealing to all, or the six people who read this article, his top ten songs, of all time! Here they are.
10. This land is your land – Really a very sprawling good song, but not his best, just one that caught on and spoke for a nation, at some point, a long time ago.
9. Talking fishing blues – Funny, fun, lyrical, silly, lazy day, day in the life, Mark Twain kind of song…
8. Talking dust bowl – One of many from a series of songs called the “Dust Bowl Ballads,” this one, like the others, speaks of the Depression and drought of the 1930’s, a classic and important piece of music.
7. I ain’t got no home – Who does, really? This song is about the troubadour, the homeless, the poor, the immigrants, all of the, me, you, anyone really. I don’t know; it’s just good!
6. Against the law – Ironic, poking song, the hypocrisy and injustice of “the law.”
5. Who’s going to shoe your pretty little feet?/More pretty girls than one – Yes, he could also write a nice love song, and an anti-love song. Well, I guess either way it’s a love song, one for a specific girl, another for all girls. Either way it works, and works very well.
4. Pastures of Plenty – Even though Ramblin Jack Elliot does this one better, it is still Woody’s song, a tribute to land, about freedom, and about beauty. “Because my pastures of plenty must always be free.”
3. 1913 Massacre/Deportee (Train Wreck at Los Gatos)/Sinking of the Rueben James – These, to me, are the best of his “tragedy” songs, songs about the loss of many lives. Rueben James: “Did you have a friend on the great Rueben James?” the song goes, almost joyfully, like they are celebrating. Maybe they are, the lives not the deaths. Or maybe he is being cynical. Who knows? The 1913 Massacre: “They carried their children back up to the tree… and the children who died there were seventy-three.” 73 kids dead, crying miners and their wives. It’s hard not to cry, too. “Deportee: “And all they would call them would be deportee.” These immigrants died without names, just a status -Deportee!
2. Going down the road feeling bad/Hard ain’t it hard/and all the rest!
1. Hard Travelin’ – The most distilled version of his entire legacy!
