"Woody once said, 'When I'm writing a song and I get the words, I look around for some tune that has proved its popularity with the people.'"Ī man happier on the road than at home, he'd walked, hitched and ridden the rails all over the country. "He tended to write words first, and later on picked out a tune," Seeger says. He says that Guthrie made good use of the popular melodies of the day. Musician, activist and Guthrie's fellow traveler Pete Seeger has probably sung "This Land" more than anyone else. A 1930 gospel recording, "When the World's on Fire," sung by the Carters, must have provided the tune for what would become "This Land Is Your Land." Guthrie had a keen ear for the recordings of Virginia's Carter Family, and he was not afraid to borrow. "This Land Is Your Land" wasn't released by Folkways until 1951, but the song was originally written in February 1940, when Woody Guthrie first arrived in New York City from Oklahoma. Words and music became a growing passion for him. That's when Woody took to the road.Īs a boy, he'd already proven himself to be a gifted street entertainer - dancing, playing guitar and harmonica, making up songs as he went. The Guthrie family relocated to Pampa, Tex., after Woody's mother was committed to a mental institution for a mysterious nervous condition. The Guthries had been fairly prosperous - Woody's father was a small-time politician and businessman - but the family unraveled in the topsy-turvy oil economy of the '20s and '30s. Growing up in small-town Oklahoma, Guthrie heard church hymns, outlaw ballads, blues, fiddle tunes and popular music.
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