Originally from New York, Elliott grew up in a Jewish family and had always wanted to be a cowboy. Pressured by his parents to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, Elliott resisted and inspired by the rodeos he attended at Madison Square Garden, he ran away from home at the age of 15 and joined the J.E. Ranch Rodeo. Although he was only with the rodeo for three months (before his parents tracked him down and he was sent home), Elliott was exposed to his first singing cowboy, a rodeo clown who played guitar and banjo and sang songs.
Returning home, Elliott taught himself to play guitar and started busking for a living. Eventually he hooked up with Woody Guthrie and lived with him as a kind of student.
With banjo player Derroll Adams, he later toured Great Britain and Europe and had a lasting effect on the music scene there. By 1960, he had made three folk albums for the British label, Topic. Playing in the small clubs and pubs of London by day, he would then take his act to the smart, west end night clubs. Upon arriving back in the U.S., Elliott discovered he had become well-known within the folk scene.
Elliott's greatest influence was Woody Guthrie. Guthrie's son, Arlo, has said that because of his dad's illness and early death, he never really got to know him. Arlo acknowledged that he learned his dad's songs and musical style through Elliott.
Elliott's musical style influenced Bob Dylan so heavily that Dylan's first gig in New York City was billed as "Son of Jack Elliott." While Dylan rose to prominence through his compositions, Elliott continued as an interpretive troubadour, bringing old songs to new audiences in an idiosyncratic manner.
Elliott appeared on Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and played Longheno de Castro in Dylan's Renaldo and Clara.
Jack Elliott's style is distinctive in its use of excellent guitar technique matched with laconic, humorous storytelling and an emotional intensity in the singing.
Elliott's nickname is due not to his travel habits, but rather to the countless stories he would relate before answering the simplest of questions. Folk singer Odetta claims that it was her mother who gave him the name by remarking, "Oh Jack Elliott, yeah, he can sure ramble on!"
He was famously parodied in on the BBC in the 1960s by Kenneth Williams as Rambling Syd Rumpo who was a recurring character on Round the Horne. His claims of authenticity as a folk artist (despite being a Jewish doctor's son from New York City) and disparagement of other folk artists were also parodied by the Folksmen (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) in A Mighty Wind both in the name of their "hit" Ramblin' and in their claims that their version was more authentic than the New Main Street Singers's version.
Jack Elliott's first recording in 20 years, "South Coast", earned him his first Grammy in 1995. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998. Ramblin' Jack's long career and strained relationship with his daughter Aiyana were chronicled in her 2000 documentary, "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack".
At 75, he has recently changed labels and released "I Stand Alone" on the Anti- label, with an assortment of guest backup players including members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; again, an idiosyncratic collection of little-known music delivered with humor and intensity. He is on record as saying his intention was to title the album "Not For The Tourists" because it was recorded in response to his daughter's request for songs he loved but never played in concert. When she asked why he did not play them in public, he replied "These songs are not for the tourists".
Talkin' Dust Bowl
Ramblin' Jack Elliott Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I had a little farm and I called that heaven.
Well, the prices up and the rain come down,
And I hauled my crops all into town --
I got the money, bought clothes and groceries,
Fed the kids, and raised a family.
Rain quit and the wind got high,
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine,
And I poured it full of this gas-i-line --
And I started, rockin' an' a-rollin',
Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.
Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
I's a-goin' pretty fast, there wasn't even stoppin',
A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn poppin' --
Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind,
There was a feller there, a mechanic feller,
Said it was en-gine trouble.
Way up yonder on a mountain curve,
It's way up yonder in the piney wood,
An' I give that rollin' Ford a shove,
An' I's a-gonna coast as far as I could --
Commence coastin', pickin' up speed,
Was a hairpin turn, I didn't make it.
Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you,
The fiddles and the guitars really flew.
That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
An' it flew halfway around the world --
Scattered wives and childrens
All over the side of that mountain.
We got out to the West Coast broke,
So dad-gum hungry I thought I'd croak,
An' I bummed up a spud or two,
An' my wife fixed up a tater stew --
We poured the kids full of it,
Mighty thin stew, though,
You could read a magazine right through it.
Always have figured
That if it'd been just a little bit thinner,
Some of these here politicians
Coulda seen through it.
Talkin’ Dust Bowl is a song about the Great Depression era in the United States, particularly the Dust Bowl period that began in the 1930s. The song paints a vivid picture of the life of a farmer in the Midwest who was forced to leave his farm due to the crop failures caused by the lack of rain and Dust Bowl storms. The song starts off with the singer reminiscing about the good old days when he had a little farm that he called his heaven. Everything was going well for him until the prices of his crops went down and it stopped raining. The singer had to haul his crops into town and sell them for money. He used this money to buy clothes, groceries, feed his kids, and raise his family.
However, things took a turn for the worse when the rain stopped and the wind got high, causing a black dust storm to fill the sky. The dust storm destroyed the singer's farm and left him with nothing. He had to sell his farm and swap it for a Ford machine that he filled with gas. He started driving towards the old Peach Bowl when he had a nervous breakdown and had to stop for repairs. The song ends with the singer arriving on the West Coast with his family broke and hungry. They had to rely on the meager food they could find to survive, including a thin stew made from potatoes.
The song is a classic example of the protest songs of the 1960s, which were used to convey social and political messages. It was written by Woody Guthrie, one of the most important singer-songwriters of the era. He wrote the song in 1940 while he was living in Los Angeles and working for KFVD radio. The song was later recorded by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who added his own contribution to the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven,
In the year 1927, a time before our current struggles.
I had a little farm and I called that heaven.
I owned a small farm which I loved and cherished.
Well, the prices up and the rain come down,
With high crop prices and decent rainfall, all seemed well.
And I hauled my crops all into town --
I transported the fruits of my labor into the city to sell.
I got the money, bought clothes and groceries,
With the sale of my crops, I was able to buy clothes and food.
Fed the kids, and raised a family.
I used my earnings to feed my family and provide for their well-being.
Rain quit and the wind got high,
Rain stopped falling and strong winds began to blow.
And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky.
A thick, black dust storm engulfed the area.
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine,
Faced with harsh conditions, I exchanged my farm for a car.
And I poured it full of this gas-i-line --
I filled the car with gasoline to begin a new journey.
And I started, rockin' an' a-rollin',
I started driving off in my new car, enjoying the ride.
Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.
I journeyed over the mountains, heading towards the Peach Bowl destination.
Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I traveled on a mountainous road, high up in the great outdoors.
I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
My car had a powerful engine and was carrying a lot of weight.
I's a-goin' pretty fast, there wasn't even stoppin',
I was moving relatively quickly without the need to stop.
A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn poppin' --
My car was bouncing up and down, like popping popcorn.
Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind,
Experiencing some trouble, I had a breakdown of sorts.
There was a feller there, a mechanic feller,
A fellow, another man like myself, who was a mechanic, was present.
Said it was en-gine trouble.
The mechanic identified that the issue was related to the engine of my car.
Way up yonder on a mountain curve,
Continuing my journey up in the mountains, I faced a curve on the road.
It's way up yonder in the piney wood,
Deep into the forest of pine trees, I went.
An' I give that rollin' Ford a shove,
I pushed the car as it began to roll downwards.
An' I's a-gonna coast as far as I could --
I decided to coast along downhill as much as I could.
Commence coastin', pickin' up speed,
Starting to lose control, I picked up more speed.
Was a hairpin turn, I didn't make it.
Suddenly faced with a difficult turn, I was unable to navigate it.
Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you,
Wow, I'm telling you with full honesty.
The fiddles and the guitars really flew.
The fiddles and guitars, that is the music, became lively and fast-paced.
That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
My Ford car violently flew off the road at the turn.
An' it flew halfway around the world --
Out of control, it seemed like my car went halfway around the globe.
Scattered wives and children
My family, my precious wives and children, were thrown all over the side of the mountain by the accident.
All over the side of that mountain.
My family landed all over the side of the mountain due to the car accident.
We got out to the West Coast broke,
Reaching the West Coast, we had little money left.
So dad-gum hungry I thought I'd croak,
We were so hungry that it felt like we might die.
An' I bummed up a spud or two,
I managed to beg for a couple of potatoes to eat.
An' my wife fixed up a tater stew --
My wife cooked the potatoes into a thin stew.
We poured the kids full of it,
We filled our children's stomachs with the potato stew.
Mighty thin stew, though,
The stew was thin and watery due to a lack of ingredients.
You could read a magazine right through it.
The stew was so thin that it was possible to read through it like a magazine.
Always have figured
I have always thought to myself
That if it'd been just a little bit thinner,
Considering how thin the stew was
Some of these here politicians
Some of the politicians, who had no idea how it felt to be poor and hungry.
Coulda seen through it.
They could have seen through my thin stew and realized how dire our situation is.
Contributed by Sarah R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.