September 26, 2007 10:19 am
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By David Dary
For The Transcript
Some Oklahomans still have mixed emotions when they hear the name of their native son Woody Guthrie. Since his death 40 years ago in 1967, however, there has been greater appreciations of his life and legacy. Today many people consider him the father of American folk music.
The story of Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie began on July 14, 1912 when he was born in Okemah. He was the second son of Charles and Nora Belle Guthrie. As a boy he was attracted to music and learned to play the guitar, mandolin, fiddle and harmonica. His early childhood in Okemah was comfortable until his mother
became ill and an older sister died. The family broke up. Guthrie spent winters in school but he spent his summers working as a migrant farm hand to make ends meet.
In 1929 the family came together again in Pampa, Texas, only to experience the dust bowl days of the early 1930s. During this time, Guthrie spent his spare time singing and playing his guitar.
In 1937, when Guthrie was 25, he went to Los Angeles wanting to be a singing western entertainer. He appeared on several radio programs acting like a hayseed and singing folk music and songs he had written including “Do Re, Mi,” “Oklahoma Hills” (the Oklahoma State Folk Song), and “Philadelphia Lawyer.”
Guthrie did not compose his own music but instead composed his own lyrics for old tunes and traditional folk songs.
In California, he became sympathetic to the causes of the Communist Party. Seeing so many people down and out he sought change for them and began writing articles for leftist newspapers including the Daily Worker.
In 1939, Guthrie moved to New York City where the intellectual community embraced his authenticity and leftist philosophy. This period in Guthrie’s life later became the source of much right wing criticism of Guthrie.
In 1940, Guthrie met Alan Lomax who was going around the country recording folk songs for the archives of the Library of Congress. Lomax recorded Guthrie’s ballads. When RCA Victor released an album of “Dust Bowl Ballads” that included Guthrie’s songs, he suddenly gained national attention.
During the 1940s Guthrie performed with many other popular musicians including Burl Ives, the Almanac Singers, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, Pete Seeger and Josh White.
Guthrie continued to write songs. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 1,000 songs, many for children. Two of his well-known songs are “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” and “This Land Is Your Land.’ They were written after he moved to New York.
“This Land Is Your Land” was written on a cold February day in response to the then popular tune “God Bless America” sung by Kate Smith. Guthrie killed two bitter verses and rewrote his song in a patriotic tone. Otherwise, the song probably would not be the popular hit it is today.
Many of Guthrie’s songs expressed his deep love for Oklahoma and his country. His music reflected optimism for his fellow man and humor.
During World War II he saw active duty with the Merchant Marine and briefly in the U.S. Army.
He found time to write Bound for Glory, an autobiographical novel, published in New York City in 1943. Guthrie also illustrated his book. Literary critic, Clifton Fadiman, praised the book and called Guthrie a national treasure.
Guthrie also wrote poems. He was praised as a fine poet. Some critics said he was more of a poet than a songwriter.
He also was a talented artist. After his death a large collection of his art ended up in the Library of Congress.
In New York, some of Guthrie’s songs lost their folk flavor found in his earlier pieces. Guthrie borrowed the “illiterate” style of fellow Oklahoman Will Rogers, who was killed in a plane crash in 1935 to retain a folksy flavor to his performing.
Guthrie once wrote, “I ain’t a writer. I want that understood. I’m just a little one-cylinder guitar picker,” but Guthrie, like Will Rogers, was educated and well read.
Guthrie continued to write songs and perform during the early 1950s. By the middle 1950s his health was deteriorating. He had frequent mood swings. His behavior was often unpredictable. Alcoholism was suspected. So was schizophrenia.
When he was correctly diagnosed by doctors, Guthrie was found to have Huntington’s Chorea, a degenerative nerve disorder that he had inherited from his mother.
For 13 years he was in and out of hospitals until 1967 when he died 40 years agothis year in Creedmoor State Hospital, Queens, New York, on October 3, 1967. He was 55. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the ocean off Coney Island, New York.
In 2004, the Oklahoma Senate honored Guthrie’s memory by hanging his portrait painted by Charles Banks Wilson in the Oklahoma Capitol near Will Rogers’s portrait.
Guthrie is best remembered today for his ballads about a floundering America between the depression-dust bowl days and World War II. His songs gave voice to what Americans were feeling, but they also roused a sense of patriotism across the land. His music lives on through his son Arlo Guthrie and other musicians
including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
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