The Woody Guthrie Story

The Woody Guthrie Story

"I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this guy. You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live. I wanted to sing like that. His songs had a particular sound and said something with it. They were songs with a radical slant. I wanted to sing like that. These songs sounded archaic to most people. I don't know why they didn't sound archaic to me. They sounded like they were happening at the moment to me."

These are the words of Bob Dylan about Woody Guthrie and his songs. He couldn't believe that someone so talented wasn't admired by anyone and had been forgotten by most of the people. He couldn't believe that there was someone so great in the world who was so unknown. From that day Dylan admired him for the rest of his life and even dedicated a song to him called, "Song to Woody."

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie better known as Woody Guthrie was born to Nora Belle Sherman and Charles Edward Guthrie on the 14th of July 1912. He was born in Okemah in Oklahoma and his parents decided to call him Woodrow Wilson after the president that had just been elected in the same year. He was the second born son of Charles and Nora Guthrie. They first had a girl called Clara. His father Charles, was a cowboy, land speculator and local politician. He taught Woody a lot of things such as Western songs, Indian songs and Scottish folk tunes. His mother Nora was born in Kansas, loved music and had quite a significant effect on Woody. Woody Guthrie was a precocious and unconventional boy from the beginning and a keen observer of the world around him; the people, the traditions and the music.

Woody Guthrie wasn't someone that had a very pleasant childhood from some points of view. In fact, the first real dramatic accident that happened was the death of Clara. From that day things got worse and worse until Guthrie lost his mother and financially the family went really down. Strangely enough though was the fact that the Guthrie's had a lot of problems with fire and at a certain point of his life, Woody even started having a strong phobia for fires. In fact, he lost his older sister Clara in an accidental house fire when poor Woody was only seven. Tragically even his father Charles was burned in another separate incident. The mysterious thing in all of this and especially in Charles' case, is whether this was actually an accident that had occurred or whether as some claim, it had to do with Nora. Some believe that Nora, Woody's mother, lit the fire as she suffered from a degenerative neurological disease. Even the Guthrie's didn't know about the fact that she had this disease as it was diagnosed very much later, after she had been sent to the Insane hospital where she died in 1930, leaving Woody Guthrie unhappy once again. Nora suffered from Huntington's disease which brought with it, depression and uncontrolled movement of the body. Woody Guthrie inherited the disease from her and it was discovered that it had been passed on to his mother from Nora's father, George Sherman.

When he was 8 years old, oil was discovered near Okemah. This event brought thousands of workers, gamblers and hustlers to this area that had once been a very quiet little farm town. However, in a few years the oil flow suddenly stopped and Okemah suffered an economic problem that it wasn't able to face in a good way and left people disgusted. Many of them like Woody Guthrie, had only one choice
left; to live and try to earn some money on the road. From that day, Woody was on the road with nothing. His only goal was to feed his family and send some of his earnings home. He planned to do small odd jobs and earn something to live upon. He first headed in 1931 for Texas where in the panhandle town of Pampa, he met Mary Jennings whom he fell in love with. He married her in 1933 and had three children, Gwen, Sue and Bill. She had an older brother called Matt Jennings. It was with Cluster Baker and with Matt Jennings that Woody made his first attempt at a musical career, forming The Corn Cob Trio and later the Pampa Junior Chamber of Commerce Band. It was in this town that Guthrie discovered a talent and passion for painting and drawing.

Already the Great Depression was enough to make things very hard, making survival almost impossible. Things were becoming really bad and being able to support a family was almost like a dream as it was extremely hard. But when the Great Dust Bowl hit in 1935, it made it impossible to support a family. After this Great Dust Bowl hit in 1935, millions of people were forced to take route 66 and try to find work in California. California was considered "A garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see", as Woody says in his ballad, 'If you ain't got the Do-Ra-Mi'. On the road, the only thing he had now was his guitar. In exchange for bed and board he used to sing for people and also sang in saloons and played his guitar. Slowly he started learning how to live on the road. When he arrived in California, he wasn't warmly welcomed by the residents of the place as they were naturally against and troubled by this enormous migration of people that were in search of work.

In Los Angeles, Woody found a job on KFVD radio. He had to sing old-time traditional songs as well as modern original songs. With his singing partner Crissman Woody started to be listened by people. They realized that in his songs he was talking about the migrants that had lost their homes and that he was somehow entertaining them and cheering them up by having them forget their problems with a fantastic healer; music. The Okies, especially enjoyed listening to him as even Woody was from Oklahoma. The local radio let him sing and from there he started singing about corrupt politicians, businessmen and about the working classes and how they were victims of the wealthy. Woody's lyrics in the ballad 'Jesus Christ', 'Pretty Boy Floyd', 'I ain't got no home' and many, many others deal with such themes.

Later on in 1940, Woody Guthrie moved east towards New York City. In the same year, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Woody in a series of conversations and songs for the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. In this period he sang and recorded "Dust Bowl Ballads" for RCA Victor, his first album of original songs. In this city, he made some really good and close friends that he could rely on anytime. They were Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Will Geer, Brownie McGhee, Josh White, Millard Lampell, Bess Hawes and Sis Cunningham. They all became really good friends for Woody and they joined and formed a folk singing group called, "The Almanac Singers". He was one of the most important people in the band as he was not only the guitar player but even the writer of the different songs they played. The Almanacs helped spread this different genre of music called, "folk music". Later on in the 1950's, it was because the original Almanac band members went and formed a group called the Weavers who had a huge success, that Guthrie's music became popular and well known to the public. Because he became so successful and lucky with his work, he could finally in the times of the Great Depression help his family like he initially and throughout his adventure had tried to do. Finally he was able to support his family by bringing them to New York and helping the family economically.

Although he became very successful and was almost considered a star in that period, Woody Guthrie became very restless and disillusioned with New York's radio and entertainment industry. This is because he was very angry at the fact that every time he wrote a ballad, the government would find it inappropriate for the public to see or hear. This prompted him to write, "I got disgusted with the whole sissified and nervous rules of censorship on all my songs and ballads, and drove off down the road across the southern states again".

In 1941, Woody left New York with his family and headed towards Portland, Oregon where a documentary film about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam decided to use Guthrie's song-writing talent. Later on, the Bonneville Authority placed Woody on the Federal payroll for a month and it was there that he wrote a collection of songs that then became very famous: "The Columbia River Songs". Some of the famous songs that he wrote that are in this collection, are 'Roll on Columbia', 'Grand Coulee Dam', 'The Biggest Thing That Man Has Done' and many more. After his contract with Bonneville Authority expired, he moved with his family once again as usual, but this time back again in Texas. Later on in his life in Pampa, Woody Guthrie tried really hard to somehow get back onto the New York City radio to be heard again like he was once. He hitchhiked and wandered the state 'on the road', to find little jobs and get back in New York. Not having a constant job throughout his life had a great effect on his family as they had to struggle throughout their lives. But later on, unfortunately, his interest in politics led to the end of his first marriage.



During the World War II years, Woody Guthrie went back to New York. There, he met a woman called Marjorie Mazia. She was part of the Martha Graham Dance Company. They were both political activists and had similar ideas about life. Finally they married in 1945. Woody had not three but four children: Cathy, Arlo Joady and Nora Lee. During this difficult period of conflict, Woody was moved by his passion against fascism and wrote many ballads and songs such as, 'Reuben James', 'Talking Merchant Marine', 'All you Fascists Bound To Lose' and many more. His capacity of creative self-expression seemed inexhaustible, whether on land or sea!

In 1946, after the Second World War settled, Woody Guthrie returned to Coney Island in New York City. He moved there with his wife and four children. During this time of peace and harmony, everything seemed to go really well as the war had settled down. In fact, it was in this period that Woody Guthrie wrote a lot of songs for children like, 'Work Songs to Grow On', 'Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child' and many others. All of these children's classics won him success and fame that led to recognition as an innovative writer of children's songs. He wrote about things that are real problems and issues in children's lives, like friendship, family, chores, community, personal responsibility and just plain fun like children like to have all the time. This made him a very popular song writer as his songs were actually appreciated and sung by children as well as their parents. In this period, Guthrie also wrote a lot of remarkable songs about the Jewish culture. He was inspired to write on this topic as he had been involved in the Jewish community on Coney Island in New York, through his mother-in-law. An example is, 'The many and the few'. In the late 1940's, Woody Guthrie started suffering symptoms of an hereditary rare neurological disease. In fact, he started becoming very fussy, violent, moody and unpredictable. His character was changing and this change influenced his work during this time period. Later on in this period, with no logical explanation, but probably due to his developing illness, Guthrie left New York once again, but this time for California with Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Later on when he arrived in California he met a woman called Anneke Van Kirk whom he married soon after they first met and had a daughter called Lorina.

During the late 1940's and early1950's, there was a rise in anti-communist sentiments and ideas. The fascists in this period, had created something incredible; a blacklist which had the names of many famous people who were suspected of taking part in communist activities. The goal of the fascists was to eliminate these famous people and make their lives miserable by making it difficult for them to work. Many people were fired from their jobs. Woody was a victim together with Pete Seeger, of this unjust action. Woody decided to move to Florida where his friend Kennedy offered famous artists the opportunity to work. This is the period in which he wrote his third novel called "Seeds of Man."



Becoming more and more unpredictable day by day, Woody eventually decided to return to New York with his new wife Anneke. This time in New York, he was hospitalized several times while his health deteriorated. In the same period, he was admitted to Greystone Psychiatric Hospital, where he was finally diagnosed and they found out that he had inherited the incurable disease called Huntington's Disease or simply, HD.

While in hospital, a lot of folk singers of the next generation came to meet him and dedicated some songs to him and played for him. One of these was Bob Dylan!

Woody Guthrie died on October 3 1967, while at Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens, New York. His ashes after he was burnt, were thrown in the waters off the Coney Island shore in New York.

A month after his death, his son Arlo Guthrie released a recording of Woody Guthrie called, 'Alice's Restaurant' that surprisingly enough became later on, the new anti-war national anthem.

Woody Guthrie was a great Balladeer who expressed the sentiments of the people, before, during and after the Great Depression. He wrote the lyrics for over 3,000 songs which have become an integral part of America's heritage.

Sonny 8T

Back to On the Road Home Page

The Woody Guthrie Story "I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this guy. You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live. I wanted to sing like that. His songs had a particular sound and said something with it. They were songs with a radical slant. I wanted to sing like that. These songs sounded archaic to most people. I don't know why they didn't sound archaic to me. They sounded like they were happening at the moment to me." These are the words of Bob Dylan about Woody Guthrie and his songs. He couldn't believe that someone so talented wasn't admired by anyone and had been forgotten by most of the people. He couldn't believe that there was someone so great in the world who was so unknown. From that day Dylan admired him for the rest of his life and even dedicated a song to him called, "Song to Woody."

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie better known as Woody Guthrie was born to Nora Belle Sherman and Charles Edward Guthrie on the 14th of July 1912. He was born in Okemah in Oklahoma and his parents decided to call him Woodrow Wilson after the president that had just been elected in the same year. He was the second born son of Charles and Nora Guthrie. They first had a girl called Clara. His father Charles, was a cowboy, land speculator and local politician. He taught Woody a lot of things such as Western songs, Indian songs and Scottish folk tunes. His mother Nora was born in Kansas, loved music and had quite a significant effect on Woody. Woody Guthrie was a precocious and unconventional boy from the beginning and a keen observer of the world around him; the people, the traditions and the music.
Woody Guthrie wasn't someone that had a very pleasant childhood from some points of view. In fact, the first real dramatic accident that happened was the death of Clara. From that day things got worse and worse until Guthrie lost his mother and financially the family went really down. Strangely enough though was the fact that the Guthrie's had a lot of problems with fire and at a certain point of his life, Woody even started having a strong phobia for fires. In fact, he lost his older sister Clara in an accidental house fire when poor Woody was only seven. Tragically even his father Charles was burned in another separate incident. The mysterious thing in all of this and especially in Charles' case, is whether this was actually an accident that had occurred or whether as some claim, it had to do with Nora. Some believe that Nora, Woody's mother, lit the fire as she suffered from a degenerative neurological disease. Even the Guthrie's didn't know about the fact that she had this disease as it was diagnosed very much later, after she had been sent to the Insane hospital where she died in 1930, leaving Woody Guthrie unhappy once again. Nora suffered from Huntington's disease which brought with it, depression and uncontrolled movement of the body. Woody Guthrie inherited the disease from her and it was discovered that it had been passed on to his mother from Nora's father, George Sherman. When he was 8 years old, oil was discovered near Okemah. This event brought thousands of workers, gamblers and hustlers to this area that had once been a very quiet little farm town. However, in a few years the oil flow suddenly stopped and Okemah suffered an economic problem that it wasn't able to face in a good way and left people disgusted. Many of them like Woody Guthrie, had only one choice left; to live and try to earn some money on the road. From that day, Woody was on the road with nothing. His only goal was to feed his family and send some of his earnings home. He planned to do small odd jobs and earn something to live upon. He first headed in 1931 for Texas where in the panhandle town of Pampa, he met Mary Jennings whom he fell in love with. He married her in 1933 and had three children, Gwen, Sue and Bill. She had an older brother called Matt Jennings. It was with Cluster Baker and with Matt Jennings that Woody made his first attempt at a musical career, forming The Corn Cob Trio and later the Pampa Junior Chamber of Commerce Band. It was in this town that Guthrie discovered a talent and passion for painting and drawing.

Already the Great Depression was enough to make things very hard, making survival almost impossible. Things were becoming really bad and being able to support a family was almost like a dream as it was extremely hard. But when the Great Dust Bowl hit in 1935, it made it impossible to support a family. After this Great Dust Bowl hit in 1935, millions of people were forced to take route 66 and try to find work in California. California was considered "A garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see", as Woody says in his ballad, 'If you ain't got the Do-Ra-Mi'. On the road, the only thing he had now was his guitar. In exchange for bed and board he used to sing for people and also sang in saloons and played his guitar. Slowly he started learning how to live on the road. When he arrived in California, he wasn't warmly welcomed by the residents of the place as they were naturally against and troubled by this enormous migration of people that were in search of work.
In Los Angeles, Woody found a job on KFVD radio. He had to sing old-time traditional songs as well as modern original songs. With his singing partner Crissman Woody started to be listened by people. They realized that in his songs he was talking about the migrants that had lost their homes and that he was somehow entertaining them and cheering them up by having them forget their problems with a fantastic healer; music. The Okies, especially enjoyed listening to him as even Woody was from Oklahoma. The local radio let him sing and from there he started singing about corrupt politicians, businessmen and about the working classes and how they were victims of the wealthy. Woody's lyrics in the ballad 'Jesus Christ', 'Pretty Boy Floyd', 'I ain't got no home' and many, many others deal with such themes. Later on in 1940, Woody Guthrie moved east towards New York City. In the same year, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Woody in a series of conversations and songs for the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. In this period he sang and recorded "Dust Bowl Ballads" for RCA Victor, his first album of original songs. In this city, he made some really good and close friends that he could rely on anytime. They were Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Will Geer, Brownie McGhee, Josh White, Millard Lampell, Bess Hawes and Sis Cunningham. They all became really good friends for Woody and they joined and formed a folk singing group called, "The Almanac Singers". He was one of the most important people in the band as he was not only the guitar player but even the writer of the different songs they played. The Almanacs helped spread this different genre of music called, "folk music". Later on in the 1950's, it was because the original Almanac band members went and formed a group called the Weavers who had a huge success, that Guthrie's music became popular and well known to the public. Because he became so successful and lucky with his work, he could finally in the times of the Great Depression help his family like he initially and throughout his adventure had tried to do. Finally he was able to support his family by bringing them to New York and helping the family economically.

Although he became very successful and was almost considered a star in that period, Woody Guthrie became very restless and disillusioned with New York's radio and entertainment industry. This is because he was very angry at the fact that every time he wrote a ballad, the government would find it inappropriate for the public to see or hear. This prompted him to write, "I got disgusted with the whole sissified and nervous rules of censorship on all my songs and ballads, and drove off down the road across the southern states again". In 1941, Woody left New York with his family and headed towards Portland, Oregon where a documentary film about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam decided to use Guthrie's song-writing talent. Later on, the Bonneville Authority placed Woody on the Federal payroll for a month and it was there that he wrote a collection of songs that then became very famous: "The Columbia River Songs". Some of the famous songs that he wrote that are in this collection, are 'Roll on Columbia', 'Grand Coulee Dam', 'The Biggest Thing That Man Has Done' and many more. After his contract with Bonneville Authority expired, he moved with his family once again as usual, but this time back again in Texas. Later on in his life in Pampa, Woody Guthrie tried really hard to somehow get back onto the New York City radio to be heard again like he was once. He hitchhiked and wandered the state 'on the road', to find little jobs and get back in New York. Not having a constant job throughout his life had a great effect on his family as they had to struggle throughout their lives. But later on, unfortunately, his interest in politics led to the end of his first marriage.

During the World War II years, Woody Guthrie went back to New York. There, he met a woman called Marjorie Mazia. She was part of the Martha Graham Dance Company. They were both political activists and had similar ideas about life. Finally they married in 1945. Woody had not three but four children: Cathy, Arlo Joady and Nora Lee. During this difficult period of conflict, Woody was moved by his passion against fascism and wrote many ballads and songs such as, 'Reuben James', 'Talking Merchant Marine', 'All you Fascists Bound To Lose' and many more. His capacity of creative self-expression seemed inexhaustible, whether on land or sea!
In 1946, after the Second World War settled, Woody Guthrie returned to Coney Island in New York City. He moved there with his wife and four children. During this time of peace and harmony, everything seemed to go really well as the war had settled down. In fact, it was in this period that Woody Guthrie wrote a lot of songs for children like, 'Work Songs to Grow On', 'Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child' and many others. All of these children's classics won him success and fame that led to recognition as an innovative writer of children's songs. He wrote about things that are real problems and issues in children's lives, like friendship, family, chores, community, personal responsibility and just plain fun like children like to have all the time. This made him a very popular song writer as his songs were actually appreciated and sung by children as well as their parents. In this period, Guthrie also wrote a lot of remarkable songs about the Jewish culture. He was inspired to write on this topic as he had been involved in the Jewish community on Coney Island in New York, through his mother-in-law. An example is, 'The many and the few'. In the late 1940's, Woody Guthrie started suffering symptoms of an hereditary rare neurological disease. In fact, he started becoming very fussy, violent, moody and unpredictable. His character was changing and this change influenced his work during this time period. Later on in this period, with no logical explanation, but probably due to his developing illness, Guthrie left New York once again, but this time for California with Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Later on when he arrived in California he met a woman called Anneke Van Kirk whom he married soon after they first met and had a daughter called Lorina. During the late 1940's and early1950's, there was a rise in anti-communist sentiments and ideas. The fascists in this period, had created something incredible; a blacklist which had the names of many famous people who were suspected of taking part in communist activities. The goal of the fascists was to eliminate these famous people and make their lives miserable by making it difficult for them to work. Many people were fired from their jobs. Woody was a victim together with Pete Seeger, of this unjust action. Woody decided to move to Florida where his friend Kennedy offered famous artists the opportunity to work. This is the period in which he wrote his third novel called "Seeds of Man."

Becoming more and more unpredictable day by day, Woody eventually decided to return to New York with his new wife Anneke. This time in New York, he was hospitalized several times while his health deteriorated. In the same period, he was admitted to Greystone Psychiatric Hospital, where he was finally diagnosed and they found out that he had inherited the incurable disease called Huntington's Disease or simply, HD. While in hospital, a lot of folk singers of the next generation came to meet him and dedicated some songs to him and played for him. One of these was Bob Dylan! Woody Guthrie died on October 3 1967, while at Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens, New York. His ashes after he was burnt, were thrown in the waters off the Coney Island shore in New York. A month after his death, his son Arlo Guthrie released a recording of Woody Guthrie called, 'Alice's Restaurant' that surprisingly enough became later on, the new anti-war national anthem. Woody Guthrie was a great Balladeer who expressed the sentiments of the people, before, during and after the Great Depression. He wrote the lyrics for over 3,000 songs which have become an integral part of America's heritage. *Sonny 8T* Back to On the Road Home Page