The History Book Club discussion

This thread is dedicated to the discussion of Songwriters.


Maybe some of you are wondering what the difference is between a songwriter and a lyricist. Here is a write-up about songwriters from Wikipedia:

A songwriter is an individual who writes either or both the lyrics or music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer.

Although songwriters of the past commonly composed, arranged and played their own songs, more recently the pressure to produce popular hits has tended to distribute responsibility between a number of people. Popular culture songs may be written by group members, but are now often written by staff writers: songwriters directly employed by music publishers.

Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have outside publishers.
The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by some universities and colleges and rock schools. A knowledge of modern music technology and business skills are seen as necessary to make a songwriting career, and music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules.

Since songwriting and publishing royalties can be a substantial source of income, particularly if a song becomes a hit record, legally, in the US, songs written after 1934 may only be copied or performed publicly by permission of the authors. The legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law.

Professional songwriters can either be employed to write directly for or alongside a performing artist, or they pitch songs to A&R, publishers, agents and managers for consideration. Song pitching can be done on a songwriter's behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like "RowFax", the MusicRow publication, and Song Quarters.

Please feel free to discuss your favorites. This thread was a request of one of the group members: Garrett.

Here are some of my favourite song writers. Bob Dylan,Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Paul Kelly, Tim Rogers and Jamie T. Music feeds my soul just as books nourish my mind.

I always liked Bob Dylan too.

Any Joni Mitchell fans following this?

Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics

Randy Newman is an interesting songwriter, click here , scroll down to "One on One: Randy Newman" and click on the link
"Listen to this Podcast."

Enjoy!

Here is a link to two of Australia's greates song writers Paul Kelly and Nick Cave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cave
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kel...

I will post some links some song's when I get a chance.

Thanks for the links. I did not realize Nick Cave was involved in so many film scores.

As promised here are some links to some Nick Cave and Paul Kelly songs.

Nick Cave:
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kV5Xk...

Into My Arms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS4gRm...

Red Right Hand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxePK...

Henry Lee with PJ Harvey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzmMB8...

Paul Kelly:
To Her Door http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZrfG9...

From Little Things Big Things Grow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6zxV...

How To Make Gravy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aESRsW...

Dumb Things http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWhj4s...

I love Paul Kelly he represents all that is good in Australian Music.

Michael thanks for the great links. I will be checking them out all week.

Here is a great book that gives a great insight into the art of song writing.

by Paul Kelly

Publishers Blurb

This extraordinary book has its genesis in a series of concerts first staged in 2004. Over four nights Paul Kelly performed, in alphabetical order, one hundred of his songs from the previous three decades. In between songs he told stories about them, and from those little tales grew How to Make Gravy, a memoir like no other. Each of its hundred chapters, also in alphabetical order by song title, consists of lyrics followed by a story, the nature of the latter taking its cue from the former. Some pieces are confessional, some tell Kelly's personal and family history, some take you on a road tour with the band, some form an idiosyncratic history of popular music, some are like small essays, some stand as a kind of how-to of the songwriter's art – from the point of inspiration to writing, honing, collaborating, performing, recording and reworking.

Paul Kelly is a born storyteller. Give him two verses with a chorus or 550 pages, but he won't waste a word. How to Make Gravy is a long volume that's as tight as a three-piece band. There isn't a topic this man can't turn his pen to – contemporary music and the people who play it, football, cricket, literature, opera, social issues, love, loss, poetry, the land and the history of Australia … there are even quizzes. The writing is insightful, funny, honest, compassionate, intelligent, playful, erudite, warm, thought-provoking. Paul Kelly is a star with zero pretensions, an everyman who is also a renaissance man. He thinks and loves and travels and reads widely, and his musical memoir is destined to become a classic – it doesn't have a bum note on it.

Paul Kelly is at the moment touring playing his 4 show concert, were he plays all 100 songs in the book in alphabetical order. A fantastic concept, I have front row tickets for the 3rd night in old Hobart town.

Thanks Michael,
I will check this one out.

Pete Yorn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnbOa...

together with Scarlett Johansson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etmvUP...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ARZ4...

Joseph Arthur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmMZR...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ3Ee9...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLLD-...

Some more great adds Andre, thank you.

Bentley wrote: "Some more great adds Andre, thank you."

It's a pleasure, Bentley.

Jeff Buckley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOoEYx...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaP7dB...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaWIlz...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhd-zI...


Jeff Buckley

Tim Buckley (Jeff's father)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-qNBx...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NR-hm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13HVA6...

Tracy Chapman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orv_F2...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn01zV...

Tracy Chapman

Alanis Morissette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v9yUV...

Alanis Morissette

Eric Clapton - I normally wouldn't post him here but I think this song fits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AscPOo...

Eric Clapton

That song is so sad but certainly has personal meaning to Eric Clapton. Of course, so does this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5USg...

Jill, not bad (but to me it sounds like he's trying too hard) I personally prefer this version.
Or the original, from way back when...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj8xjL...

Bob Dylan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2kBye...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmY30_...

just two - please fill in more...

Bob Dylan

André wrote: "Jill, not bad (but to me it sounds like he's trying too hard) I personally prefer this version.
Or the original, from way back when...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj8xjL..."

Andre ....you are right. The original with Derek and the Dominos was by far the ultimate version.

Aimee Mann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbFQa4...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWCO6A...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXB4eJ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZVZy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t8Wzt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qtA2s...

Aimee Mann

Gooooood stuff, Andre.

Garret wrote: "Any Joni Mitchell fans following this?

Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics"

Joni Mitchell is one of the best along with Dylan. I've also enjoyed Billy Joel and Dave Mathews...and U2.

Jill wrote: "Gooooood stuff, Andre."

Thanks, Jill. Aimee Mann is terrific. She really got a boost through Magnolia. And she deserved it.

Magnolia: The Shooting Script by Paul Thomas Anderson

Aimee Mann

GardenSinger wrote: "I've also enjoyed Billy Joel and Dave Matthews...and U2..."

Thanks, Gardensinger. Please do post some links to videos if you like and find the time.

Billy Joel
Dave Matthews Dave Matthews Band
U2

All good.

I hope to slowly add writers of American popular song to this thread. I'd welcome others' favorite versions of their work.

Stephen Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs — such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "Hard Times Come Again No More", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", and "Beautiful Dreamer" — remain popular over 150 years after their composition.

Many of Foster's songs were of the blackface minstrel show tradition popular at the time. Foster sought, in his own words, to "build up taste ... among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order."

Although many of his songs had Southern themes, Foster never lived in the South and visited it only once. He died penniless in New York at age 37.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_...


Oh! Susanna - James Taylor and Johnny Cash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sui84F...

Campdown Races - 2nd South Carolina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4NVg8...

Hard Times Come Again No More - Mavis Staples (still so moving)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZsO34...

My Old Kentucky Home - Bill Schustik
(with original lyrics of song and abolitionist origins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=861Z4d...

Old Black Joe - Sons of the Pioneers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YGxk7...

Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair - Jussi Björling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09oT6c...

Beautiful Dreamer - Marty Robbins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc4nPi...

Good add Bea, keep them coming.

Katherine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859 – March 28, 1929) is remembered as the author of the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful". While the poem was sung with a variety of tunes, it has almost exclusively adapted Samuel A. Ward’s “Materna” as its melody. Bates was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1970.



America the Beautiful - Ray Charles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8...

Great adds, it might be nice to add an image of each one of these songwriters, etc.

James Alan Bland (October 22, 1854 – May 5, 1911), also known as Jimmy Bland, was an African American musician and songwriter.

Bland was one of 8 children born in Flushing, New York to a free family. His father was one of the first U. S. Negro college graduates (Oberlin College, 1845). Because white men in blackface dominated the field of U. S. minstrel shows, Bland did not get very far in his U. S. minstrel career before the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Bland was educated in Washington, DC and graduated from Howard University in 1873. He wrote over 700 songs, including "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "O Dem Golden Slippers" (the theme song for the long running Philadelphia Mummers Parade) and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny", published in 1878, which, in a slightly modified form, was the official State Song of Virginia from 1940-1997. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1970.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bland



Carry Me Back to Old Virginny - Tom Roush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUmI-P...

Golden Slippers - Vernon Dalhart
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett (October 29, 1815 – June 28, 1904) was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.

Dan Emmett is traditionally credited with writing the famous song "Dixie". The story that he related about its composition varied each time he told it, but the main points were that he composed the song in New York City while a member of Bryant's Minstrels. The song was first performed by Emmett and the Bryants at Mechanics' Hall in New York City on April 4, 1859. The song became a runaway hit, especially in the South, and the piece for which Emmett was most well known.

Emmett himself reportedly told a fellow minstrel that "If I had known to what use they [Southerners] were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it." Other songs produced in the pre-Civil War era were "The Boatman's Dance," "Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel," and "The Blue-Tail Fly" (a.k.a. “Jimmy Crack Corn"). Emmett was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1970.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Emmett



Dixie - Toscanini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZZ-pU...

Blue-Tail Fly - Bugs Bunny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7BVyP...

Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (December 25, 1829 – September 24, 1892) was an Irish-born composer and bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848.


Over the course of his life, Gilmore wrote several marches and songs (often under the pseudonym Louis Lambert) including “Good News From Home”, “We Are Coming Father Abraham”, “Seeing Nellie Home”, 22nd Regiment March”, “Sad News From Home”, “The Everlasting Polka”, “Music Fills My Soul With Sadness” and the definitive performance of Henry C. Work’s “God Save the Nation”. However it was after the Battle of Gettysburg that Gilmore’s biggest hit was written: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”.

Source: http://songwritershalloffame.org/inde...



When Johnny Comes Marching Home - from Billy Wilder's "Stalag 17"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INPNyN...

We Are Coming Father Abraham - 97th New York Regimental Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5PAcD...

George Frederick Root (August 30, 1820 – August 6, 1895) was an American songwriter, who found particular fame during the American Civil War.

Root began working as a songwriter for minstrel songs in 1851 under the pseudonym G. Friedrich Wurzel (a German word meaning “Root”). His first successful composition came in 1853 with “The Hazel Dell” and in 1855 another success was published with “Rosalie, The Prairie Flower.”

From 1853-1858, Root lived in New York collaborating with other songwriters such as Mary S. B. Dana (“Free As a Bird”), Frances Jane Crosby (“There’s Music in the Air”) and Rev. David Nelson (“The Shining Shore”). In 1959, he moved the family to Chicago to join his older brothers publishing company, Root & Cady.

Influenced by the Civil War, Root’s music shifted from popular standards to war songs. In 1863, he composed “The First Gun is Fired” and then in 1864 the anthem of the Civil War, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” was published. Other songs composed during this time: “Just Before the Battle, Mother”, “Just After the Battle”, “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp”, “On, On, On the Boys Came Marching” and “The Vacant Chair”.

The Battle Cry of Freedom - National Military Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ow3Lg...

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (original lyrics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO6Sml...

Septimus Winner (11 May 1827 - 22 November 1902) is best known as a songwriter of the nineteenth century. He was also a teacher, performer, and music publisher.

In 1854, his first successful song, “What Is Home Without a Mother?” was published. The next year, what was described as a sentimental Ethiopian Ballad entitled “Listen to the Mocking Bird,” became one of the biggest hits from the era.

During the Civil War, Winner was greatly affected by the political atmosphere. His composition “Give Us Back Our Old Commander: Little Mac, the People’s Pride”, was written in plea to President Lincoln for the return of Union General McClellan who had been removed from command. The song was considered anti-Union and Winner spent a brief time in jail on a charge of treason. Winner was released from jail only after agreeing to destroy all remaining copies of the song. The song resurfaced in 1864 when McClellan was a candidate for president and then again in 1880, with new words, as a campaign song for Ulysses S. Grant’s third term run.

It was also during the Civil War that Winner wrote “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone,” written to a German Folk song melody “ Lauterbach.” Other hit songs from this period include “Ten Little Injuns,” Abraham’s Daughter,” “Ellie Rhee.” Winner’s last successful composition, was published in 1868, entitled “Whispering Hope”.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimus...



Listen to the Mockingbird - Tom Roush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvr3lb...

Whispering Hope - Willie Nelson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q2AGS...

Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832 – June 8, 1884) was an American composer and songwriter. In 1865 he wrote his greatest hit, inspired by Sherman's march to the sea, "Marching Through Georgia".



Marching Through Georgia - 1904 wax cylinder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGxpEG...

Really great adds Bea and I like the format.

George M. Cohan (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942)was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer.

Cohan's many popular songs include "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "The Yankee Doodle Boy", and "You're a Grand Old Flag". Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote and appeared in more than three dozen shows that were produced on Broadway. He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, continuing to perform as a headline artist until 1940. Off stage, he was one of the founders of ASCAP.

Known in the decade before World War I as "the man who owned Broadway," he is considered the father of American musical comedy.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M...



The Yankee Doodle Boy - James Cagney from the biopic
Sorry about the film quality here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R1jiV...

Over There - Arthur Fields
(with vintage WWI photos)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9XZB...

Mary's a Grand Old Name - Judy Garland from the film "Babes on Broadway"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxaSSq...

Harold Arlen (February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over.

Arlen collaborated with the greatest of the Tin Pan Alley lyricists, including E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Johnny Mercer, Ted Koehler, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields and Truman Capote.

Arlen was active in Hollywood producing some of the greatest film musicals of the era including The Wizard of Oz, Let’s Fall In Love, Blues In the Night, Star Spangled Rhythm, Cabin In the Sky, Up in Arms, Kismet, My Blue Heaven, Gay Purr-ee, Down Among the Sheltering Palms and A Star Is Born.

The Harold Arlen catalog boasts the individual standards “Sweet and Hot” (1930, lyric by JackYellen), “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” (1931, lyric by Ted Koehler), “I Got A Right To Sing the Blues” (1932, lyric by Ted Koehler), "Stormy Weather" (1933, with Ted Koehler), “Ill Wind" (1934, with Ted Koehler), "Fun to Be Fooled" (1934, with Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg), "Last Night When We Were Young" (1935, with E.Y. Harburg), "Blues in the Night" (194 1, lyric by Johnny Mercer), "That Old Black Magic" (1942, with Johnny Mercer), "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe" (1942, with E.Y. Harburg), "My Shining Hour" (1943, with Johnny Mercer), "One For My Baby" (1943, with. Johnny Mercer) "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" (1944, with Johnny Mercer), "Out Of This World" (1945, with Johnny Mercer), "Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home" (1946, lyric by Johnny Mercer), "I Wonder What Became of Me" (1946, with Johnny Mercer), "Come Rain or Come Shine" (1946, with Johnny Mercer), and "The Man That Got Away" (1954, with Ira Gershwin).


Source: http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhi...



I absolutely love Harold Arlen and it's hard cutting down the number of tunes and versions!


My Shining Hour - Barbra Streisand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03hG8...

I Got a Right to Sing the Blues - Louis Armstrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt_Yg_...

Last Night When We Were Young - Sarah Vaughan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o3r60...

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2...

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Jeff Beck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJqrNA...

and last but not least

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Judy Garland from the film "The Wizard of Oz"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRa4X...

Great add on George M. Cohan, great job.

Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943), born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer.

He was a splendid pianist, and master of stride piano, having been the prize pupil and later friend and colleague of the greatest of the stride pianists, James P. Johnson. Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe.

He was also a prolific songwriter and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz". While his chief collaborator was lyricist Andy Razaf, Waller also worked with Stanley Adams, George Marion, Jr. and Clarence Williams.

Waller died of pneumonia at age 39.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Wal...



Ain't Misbehavin' - Fats Waller in the film "Stormy Weather"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSNPps...

Honeysuckle Rose - Lena Horne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSKzz...

(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S35jB5...

William Christopher ("W.C.") Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues".

Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a regional music style with a limited audience to one of the dominant national forces in American music.

In 1913, Handy started his own publishing company, the first African American to do so. Other than the incomparable “St. Louis Blues”, the W.C. Handy catalog includes “Memphis Blues”, “Yellow Dog Blues”, “Joe Turner Blues”, “Beale Street Blues”, “Hesitating Blues”, “Ole Miss”, “Aframerica Hymn”, “Harlem Blues”, “Basement Blues”, “Loveless Love (Careless Love)”, “Chantez Les Bas”, “Aunt Hagar’s Blues”, “East St. Louis Blues”, “John Henry”, “Annie Love”, “Hail to the Spirit of Freedom”, “Big Stick Blues March” and “Atlanta Blues”.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.C._Handy



St. Louis Blues - Bessie Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpVCqX...

Careless Love - Odetta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGXiY...

Joe Turner Blues - James P. Johnson (piano roll)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ-i6P...

Outstanding Bea on the adds.

Thanks, Bentley. I'm sure learning a lot.

Next up:

Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk, blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced. He is best known as Lead Belly. Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly", he himself spelled it "Lead Belly".

His powerful songs have become generally popular throughout the world, and "Good Night, Irene" was a major commercial hit as sung by the Weavers. Some of the other songs Lead Belly recorded have become standards, including "Rock Island Line", "Midnight Special", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night (In The Pines)", "Bring Me A Little Water, Silvy", "Pick A Bale Of Cotton", "Cottonfields", etc. His songs are included in books and folios, and most are published by The Richmond Organization, with whom he's been associated since the early 1940s.

He had a turbulent life and the source article is worth reading.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadbelly




Rock Island Line - Lead Belly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCiJ4Q...

Hitler Blues - Lead Belly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIxhhE...

Midnight Special - Credence Clearwater Revival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Ck_R...

Goodnight Irene - The Weavers, from their reunion concert at Carnegie Hall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvk-q...

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar.

Such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.

I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built.

I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."

Guthrie on songwriting

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Gu...


This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IR...

This Land Is Your Land - Tom Morello at "Occupy L.A." (with "secret censored verses")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ImQ7...

Pastures of Plenty - Odetta
(with great vintage photos)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v2hg_...

Do Re Mi - Nancy Griffith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvtzc...

I live in Houston, Texas and there is a prison here (actually it may be shutting down soon) that dates to the early 1900s in which Lead Belly wrote his version of Midnight Special (it was an older folk song he probably first heard there while in prison). He changed the words in some of the versions he sang to the following:

If you’re ever down in Houston
Boy, you better walk right
And you better not squabble
And you better not fight
Bason and Brock will arrest you
Payton and Boone will take you down
You can bet your bottom dollar
That you’re Sugar Land bound
Let the Midnight Special
Shine the light on me
Let the Midnight Special
Shine the ever-lovin’ light on me