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Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (/ˈɡʌθri/; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter and 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. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land". Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Hunter, Harry Chapin, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Andy Irvine, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg, Jerry Garcia, Jay Farrar, Bob Weir, Jeff Tweedy, Bob Childers and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.
Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression when he traveled with displaced farmers from Oklahoma to California and learned their traditional folk and blues songs, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour". Throughout his life Guthrie was associated with United States Communist groups, though he was seemingly not a member of any.
'Long about nineteen thirty-one,
My field boiled up in the boiling sun.
'Long about nineteen thirty-two,
Dust did rise and the dust it blew.
'Long about nineteen thirty-three,
Livin' in the dust was a killin' me.
'Long about nineteen thirty-four,
Dangburn dust it blew some more.
'Long about nineteen thirty-five,
Blowed my crops about nine miles high.
'Long about nineteen thirty-six,
Me and my wife in a devil of a fix.
'Long about nineteen thirty-nine
We fanned our tails for that Orgegon line.
We got a hold of a piece of land,
Thirteen miles from the Coulee dam.
Coulee dam is a sight to see,
Makes this e-lec-a-tric-i-tee
'Lectric lights is mighty fine,
If you're hooked on to the power line
There just ain't no country extra fine.
If you're just a mile from the end o' the line.
Milk my cows and turn my stone,
Till them Grand Coullee boys come along.
My eyes are crossed, my back's in a cramp,
Tryin' to read my bible by my coal-oil lamp.
No, there ain't no country worth a dime,