Fascinating Woody Guthrie Insight

The Woody Guthrie Foundation has finally approved the release of rare tapes, titled Woody at Home. which were recorded nearly 75 years ago

Woody Guthrie was cremated after his death in 1967. But there is a memorial to him at the family plot in Highland Cemetery in Okemah, Oklahoma. And if you happen to walk past his simple marker these days, do not be surprised if the earth moves beneath your feet. For there is much now happening in America to disturb the folk legend!

Guthrie’s two greatest songs – “This Land Is Your Land” and “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” – are now considered among the most famous of the protest songs which emerged across the globe in the second half of the 20^th Century.

Motivated by the consequences of the Great Depression and his up-bringing in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, Guthrie, had, by the early 1940’s, developed an entrenched socialist philosophy. And this, of course, was reflected in the lyrics of his many compositions where he often preached anti-fascism, anti-racism and anti-economic inequality across America.

And, of course, there is no better example than “This Land Is Your Land,” written by Guthrie in 1940, though his first known recording was in 1944, included  in the so-called Asch Recordings Vol 1-4. There was early criticism  from the ruling establishment who were incensed by two verses in particular - what became known as the  “No Trespassing” verse and the “Hungry People” verse.

So one can only imagine how much the ground trembled at that Okemah memorial when, on July 30, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used “This Land Is Your Land” in a promotional video, with the jingoistic tag-line “The Promise of America is worth Protecting. The Future of our Homeland is worth Defending.”

And given that the DHS is currently engaged in mass deportations, Guthrie would have been more troubled. For in 1948 he had been motivated to write “Deportee” after reading about a plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon in Fresno County which killed 28 Mexican farm workers who were being deported back to El Centro. Guthrie was outraged that most of  the news reports named the four American crew killed but referred to the Mexicans as merely “deportees.”

The mind boggles as to what Guthrie may have been motivated to write about the current American administration, given that he did in fact target President Donald Trump’s father – the property mogul Frank Trump. Guthrie wrote “Old Man Trump” in the early 1950’s when he was living at an apartment complex called Beach Haven in Brooklyn, N.Y. It was owned by Frank Trump  and it soon annoyed Guthrie when he believed that the infamous landlord was engaging in racially discriminatory rental practices.

The song remained unknown for decades until it was rediscovered in the songwriter’s archives. The lyrics cut straight to the chase:

I suppose that Old Man Trump knows

Just how much racial hate

He stirred up in the bloodpot of human hearts

When he drawed that color line

Here at his Beach Haven family project

What makes such events currently so significant is that on August 14, Shamus Records - in conjunction with the Woody Guthrie Foundation  - released Woody at Home, Vol 1 and 2, a much-publicised selection of  22 tracks (two spoken) – including 13 never-heard-before songs  – which Guthrie himself recorded on analog tapes around 1951-52 at his family’s two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. And yes, this is the same Beach Haven complex then owned by the President’s father.

At the time, Guthrie was displaying early symptoms of Huntington’s, a disease from which he would die at the age of 55. And Guthrie scholars have been quick to question the musical wisdom of releasing the recordings which the Guthrie Foundation have kept under wraps for many years.

“It sounds awful, most the stuff, sort of embarrassing to Woody,” Jeff Place, a senior archivist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, told The Washington Post. “He’s definitely way into Huntington’s and slurring. It’s not good for Woody Guthrie music.”

It could have sounded worse. The reel-to-reel tape from nearly 75 years ago  was transferred by renown producer Steve Rosenthal and restored and mastered by Jessica Thompson. The pair utilized “pioneering software and unique tape machines” to de-mix the recordings. And this remastering no doubt reduced intrusive sounds of daily life in a two-bedroom apartment, like children chatting and doors creaking!

Despite what the purists may say, most Woody fans will no doubt be delighted by the latest release. Anything from an intriguing period of the legend’s life – he was around 38 at the time – will be devoured by folkies, especially as this selection includes the only known-recording of Guthrie actually singing “Deportee." Countless other artists have of course recorded the classic, as is the case with "This Land Is Your Land" which has been played by buskers on the street, children in school concerts and legendary artists, either live or in sophisticated studios. It has long been something of an alternative national anthem - just ask the DHS.

And, as with most covers, the lyrics from the original are often tweaked at the whim of the artist. Verses can be deleted and choruses added here and there. So, as might be expected, there is some fascination with exactly what  lyrics Woody actually delivered on the Woody at Home recordings, especially on his two most controversial songs.

The benchmark for any lyrical deviations has to be WoodyGuthrie.org where his lyrics from more than 400 of his songs are listed.

Given that “This Land Is Your Land” has seen vast variations in lyrical interpretations over the years – depending on the political and social climate at a particular time – it is intriguing to hear what exact lyrics Guthrie chose when he sent these home recordings – circa 1951-52 - to his music publisher Howie Richmond.

What about those two particular verses - “No Trespassing” & “Hungry People”?

On the official Guthrie website, the “trespassing”  verse reads:

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

And the “hungry” verse goes:

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people

By the relief office I seen my people

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking

Is this land made for you and me?

So, did Woody include them on his home recordings? And that answer is: No!.

Not only does this version not include these verses, as listed on the website, most of the lyrics bear little relation to the standard, apart from the famous chorus, which - with the odd word-transposition - is much the same. What we actually get on Woody at Home is utterly fascinating, whatever the experts might think. This is an astonishing insight into the great songwriter’s improvisation as he gently picks his acoustic. It is though you are sitting in the same room, with Woody in an opposite armchair gently strumming away as impulsive lyrics come to mind. And an off-mic cough only adds to the intimacy.

And what does he actually sing? Well, there are two verses which are somewhat out of the blue and certainly couldn’t offend anyone:

I can see your mail box, I can see your doorstep

I can feel my wind rock, your tip-top tree-top

All around your house there a sunbeam whispers

This land is made for you and me

 I'm having my farmer to scatter my new seed

Show'n my builder to build my love house

You keep dancing while I keep singing

This land is made for you and me

One can only imagine that the stanza You keep dancing while I keep singing is a spontaneous improvisation to a toddler dancing beside him.

Apart from the wonderful melody - and the standard chorus - this version is very stand-alone. For the record (so to speak), of the five known Guthrie versions released from the decade (1944-54), only two feature the "No Trespassing" verse and none include the "Hungry People" prose.

It is worth adding that the two covers of the classic commonly considered the finest – Bob Dylan (Live -1961) and Bruce Springsteen (Live -1980) – do not include either of the controversial verses. Guthrie’s long-time friend  - and fellow-believer - Pete Seeger made the song a highlight of  his live setlist and he encouraged other folkies to do likewise. But it is also hard to find a Seeger version that includes these two verses. However, it should be noted that when “This Land …” was performed by the full cast during the concert at The Kennedy Center,  Washington DC, in October 2012, to mark Guthrie’s 100^th birthday, it ended with the “No Trespassing” verse.

“Deportee” was released as a promotional single a month before the album. There was little doubt that this was a pointed reference to the current debate over the Trump  Administration’s  immigration policy. “This is a very good time for this song to resurface. Having this song come out now is very important.” said producer Rosenthal. “What Woody speaks about, and he speaks about people, and how he speaks about the whole issue of immigration, is really amazing and spot on, and it’s good for Americans.” 

And what makes this - Guthrie’s only-known recording of the song - so intriguing is how it compares lyrically to the standardised versions by other artists around the world. Like many of the songs on the compilation album, “Deportee” is somewhat rawer from what might be expected in a produced studio environment

What we learn from Woody at Home is that Guthrie was still defining the poetic  composition to “Deportee” (the music was actually written by Martin Hoffman). So any comparison has to be made with that listed on the official website. And, as might be expected, the lines listed there are those now in common usage, including perhaps the most popular version by Woody’s son Arlo Guthrie.

The Woody original includes the basic six verses as listed officially, and, of course, the hauntingly-famous chorus – Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita/Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria/You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane/All they will call you will be deportees.

Where Guthrie’s talkin’-bluesy home original blatantly deviates from the common version is that this is sung in the first-person. And he is clearly more inventive as he demonstrates a developmental interpretation common to all songwriters as they fine-tune (so to speak) songs in their infancy.

The best example comes in the third verse which, in common usage, reads:

Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted

Our work contract’s out and we have to move on

Six hundred miles to that Mexican border

They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves

Guthrie’s first-person ramble is appealingly intriguing:

Some days I’m not legal, some days I’m not wanted

My contract is gone so I have to move on

More than six hundred miles you chase me, you chase me towards that border

Where some mad dogs or thieves or outlaws either one

One can only wonder what Guthrie might have made these days of  the much-debated term  “Alligator Alcatraz” given to a Florida migrant-detention complex. He would no doubt enjoy pondering the rhyming possibilities!

Paul Cutler

Editor