Dust Bowl Blues
Woody Guthrie Lyrics


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Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven,
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 the black ol' dust storm filled the sky.
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 children's




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.

Overall Meaning

Woody Guthrie's "Dust Bowl Blues" vividly captures the horrors of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Dust storms, cold winds, and suffocating dust pneumony all find mention in the song. The lyrics talk about how the dust was so high that one could not even see the sky, and it was so dark that one could not see a thing. The singer talks about the wind blowing so high that it blew their fences down and buried their tractor six feet underground. The song also talks about the personal loss that the singer faced due to the Dust Bowl. His gal was buried under sixteen hundred feet of dirt, and he had to dig her out using a steam shovel.


The song is an epitome of the Dust Bowl's despair, desperation, and how people had to leave everything and hit the road in search of a better life. The lyrics' message is that no matter how bad things get, one should carry on and hope to survive. The song is the representation of the hardships faced by thousands of people during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.


Line by Line Meaning

I just blowed in, and I got them dust bowl blues,
I have arrived and been afflicted by the pangs of the Dust Bowl


I guess you've heard about ev'ry kind of blues,
Everyone has heard about blues but the dust spares no one


But when the dust gets high, you can't even see the sky.
The dust is so thick that it blots out the entire sky


I've seen the dust so black that I couldn't see a thing,
The dust was so black that I couldn't see anything through it


And the wind so cold, boy, it nearly cut your water off.
The wind was so cold that it nearly froze the water supply


I seen the wind so high that it blowed my fences down,
The wind was so powerful that it destroyed my fences


Buried my tractor six feet underground.
The dust accumulated so much that my tractor was buried underground


Well, it turned my farm into a pile of sand,
The farm was completely covered with sand


I had to hit that road with a bottle in my hand.
I had to leave with a bottle (perhaps of alcohol) in my hand


I spent ten years down in that old dust bowl,
I had been living in the dust bowl for a decade


When you get that dust pneumony, boy, it's time to go.
When someone contracts dust pneumonia, it's time to leave the dust bowl


I had a gal, and she was young and sweet,
I had a young and sweet girlfriend


But a dust storm buried her sixteen hundred feet.
The dust storm buried her 1600 feet under


She was a good gal, long, tall and stout,
She was a good girlfriend who was tall and physically strong


I had to get a steam shovel just to dig my darlin' out.
I needed a steam shovel to excavate and look for my girlfriend


These dusty blues are the dustiest ones I know,
These blues are the dustiest ones I have ever encountered


Buried head over heels in the black old dust,
Completely buried in the black dust, feet over head


I had to pack up and go.
I had to leave the dust bowl


An' I just blowed in, an' I'll soon blow out again.
I just arrived and will soon be leaving again




Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Woody Guthrie

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Comments from YouTube:

@Toxicslady

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there And that sign said - no tress passin' But on the other side...it didn't say nothin! Now that side was made for you and me. In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple Near the relief office - I see my people And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin' If this land's still made for you and me.

@WumboPlushes

I heard this song in school, so I’m returning back so I can remember this song again.

@81dsend

Never forget , for if we forget history will repeat itself

@anthonydoyle7370

@@81dsend And now they are busy rewriting history all across the western world so that it fits their agenda. In England they are now saying that Stonehenge was built by pocs.

@jean-pierremonnet982

Merci pour ce partage !
Parfois en "confinement" ça fait du bien d'entendre Woody et ce Blues ! L'espoir fait vivre 😘

@rocknrollfanatic96

If you want to hear some more great 30's music look up Robert Johnson. Hellhound On My Trail, Love In Vain, Crossroads, Preachin Blues, Come On In My Kitchen, are all considered some of the greatest blues songs ever written.

@81dsend

Agreed

@paulo02101988

Thank you !!

@creighton8069

Jimmie Rodgers should be on this list

@carlaontheroad1

The images may be old, but the words and sentiments are as timeless as ever. Instead of Dust Bowl, think Hurricane Katrina, foreclosures. bulging homeless shelters, no money for the most vulnerable people in our society.

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