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Dust Bowl Ballads [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Woody Guthrie Audio CD
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Woody Guthrie - My Dusty Road

Biography

Having lived through some of the most significant historic movements and events of the Twentieth-Century --the Great Depression, the Great Dust Storm, World War II, the social and the political upheavals resulting from Unionism, the Communist Party and the Cold War-- Woody absorbed it all to become a prolific writer whose songs, ballads, prose and poetry captured the plight of everyman. While ... Read more in Amazon's Woody Guthrie Store

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Product details

  • Audio CD (11 July 2000)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
  • Label: Buddha
  • ASIN: B00004TY8S
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 390,315 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
2. I Ain't Got No Home
3. Talking Dust Bowl Blues
4. Vigilante Man
5. Dust Can't Kill Me
6. Dust Pneumonia Blues
7. Pretty Boy Floyd
8. Blowin' Down The Road (I Ain't Going To Be Treated This Way)
9. Tom Joad-Part 1
10. Tom Joad-Part 2
11. Dust Bowl Refugee
12. Do Re Mi
13. Dust Bowl Blues
14. Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh)

Customer Reviews

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4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Woody, the social historian 20 Oct 2004
Format:Audio CD
Woody Guthrie has never received his due recognition for his role in shaping modern music. It's no secret that Dylan owes a lot in the beginning of his career before he found his own real style; anyway, takes more than a blue workman's shirt and cap and cigarette to be a Woody Guthrie impersonator.

The scale of the DUSTBOWL BALLADS is breathtaking, and Guthrie takes a wide sweep over a broad canvas of social issues and mostly social wrongs of the 1930s. As with John Dos Passos' fantastic novel sequence 'USA' that deals with the 1900-20s, and of course THAT Steinbeck novel, here we have all the problems of America: division, poverty, dispossession, under-class, climatic adversity, failing crops, famine, vigilantes, being on the wrong side of the law for no right reason, unlistening and uncaring politicians. The album is more like a book in some ways. Whereas many of the protest songs of the 'sixties seem so dated now, Guthrie of the 'thirties sounds so fresh (and this quality Dylan also fortunately took). For example, 'Do Re Mi' is timelessly apt for any age.

Musically, the delight of the album is Guthrie's guitar playing. I'd hitherto assumed that it would all be just a bit of strumming over simple open chords, but he actually demonstrates some pretty nimble picking on some songs, such as 'Talking Dust Bowl Blues', 'Blowin' Down This Road', and 'Dust Pneumonia Blues'. Then there is the harmonica, which he uses to great effect (which as mentioned, Dylan also adopted). Along with the fiddle and banjo, the guitar and harmonica are the real backbone of American twentieth-century music; and let's face it, only Americans can make this kind of music so well, partly because of the themes that the songs describe, and the sense of wide-open space and horizons of such a huge country.... Read more ›

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer HALL OF FAME VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
"Dust Bowl Ballads" was apparently the most successful album Woody Guthrie ever made, especially since it gained him public acclaim. What stands out most for me on this reissue of the Guthrie's 1940 album are the two parts of "Tom Joad." Obviously Guthrie was impressed by John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," (as well as John Ford's motion picture, which followed quickly on the heels of the publication of the classic novel). In just under 7 minutes time Guthrie relates the story of Tom Joad, in many ways a story song similar to "The Great Dust Bowl (Dust Storm Disaster)" or "Pretty Boy Floyd." What strikes me is that there is no explicit argument as to the meaning or import of the story, as if in telling the tale the point is obvious. Like reading scripture or even the old poets reciting the epic poems, the audience (or congregation if you will), recognizes the moral of the tale. Of course the Oakies would not have to be told the lesson of their lives. Singing the songs and hearing them sung validates their pain and suffering by making sure it is remembered and not blown away on the winds. Once you start thinking along these lines it is hard not to think of Guthrie's folk songs as the most sacred of our secular music. In many ways an album like this, where there is a clear thematic unity, represents Guthrie at his best better than a greatest hits collection. If you all you have head of the American folk tradition are Dylan and Springsteen, those who carry on the tradition, then it is about time you went back to the beginning and listed to the stories and songs of Woody Guthrie.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It's hard to believe that a review hasn't been written for this CD/album. To anyone who hasn't yet heard Woody then you have missed out on one of the greatest influences on music in 20th century.

If like me you have only arrived at his music through a reference from Dylan or Springsteen then you may, at first listen, wonder what all the fuss is about. But to appreciate Woody Guthrie you have to place him in his context - and this is easy, as Woody tells us stories from the time of the Great Depression in 30's America with the grit, dust and hardship inter woven with Woody's charm and humour. The tracks such as "Dust can't kill me" and "Dust bowl refugee" paint this picture perfectly. The witty lyics and simple tunes wisk you away so you can hear, smell and taste just what he must have experienced at this time.

You can instantly see how other artists have been influenced by such tracks as "Vigilante man" and "Pretty Boy Floyd" with Springsteen even taking "Tom Joad" as the title in his Woody styled homage "Ghost of Old Tom Joad".

My favourite, timeless classic, from Dust Bowl Ballards has to be "Do Re Mi.." its as apt today as it was then - sad to think people still live in such poverty in the world nearly 70's years since this music was first heard. I think Woody wrote as much in protest for change as he did as a means to get through to the next meal and its worth keeping that on mind when you listen to this music.

This music is difficult to descibe it isn't country or folk its kind just out there - real and raw - and even now it has a spark and relevance that make it little piece of history worth remembering.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAME VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
"Dust Bowl Ballads" was apparently the most successful album Woody Guthrie ever made, especially since it gained him public acclaim. This reissue of the 1940 album contains Guthrie's original liner notes in which he declares: "This bunch of songs . . . are 'Oakie' songs, 'Dust Bowl' Songs, 'Migracious' songs, about my folks and my relatives, about a jillion of 'em, that got hit by the drought, the dust, the wind, the banker, and the landlord, and the police, all at the same time . . . and it was these things all added up that caused us to pack our wife and kids into our little rattletrap jalopies, and light out down the Highway--in every direction, mostly west to California."

What stands out most for me on this album are the two parts of "Tom Joad." Obviously Guthrie was impressed by both John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," and John Ford's motion picture, which followed quickly on the heels of publication. In just under 7 minutes time Guthrie relates the story of Tom Joad, in many ways a story song similar to "The Great Dust Bowl (Dust Storm Disaster)" or "Pretty Boy Floyd." What strikes me is that there is no explicit argument as to the meaning or import of the story, as if in telling the tale the point is obvious. Like reading scripture or even the old poets reciting the epic poems, the audience (or congregation if you will), recognizes the moral of the tale. Of course the Oakies would not have to be told the lesson of their lives. Singing the songs and hearing them sung validates their pain and suffering by making sure it is remembered and not blown away on the winds. Once you start thinking along these lines it is hard not to think of Guthrie's folk songs as the most sacred of our secular music....

Whatever they did to remaster these songs is great; they are clear and clean but still retain a sense of the time in which they recorded. In addition to Guthrie's original linear notes, which are quite extensive and extremely insightful, Dave Marsh provides a more contemporary take on the man and his songs, making a compelling argument that "Dust Bowl Ballads" was when the singer "became the voice of his people and in a way that remains intelligible many years later." It is always said that Guthrie was not inclined to sing the same song the same way twice, and this album offers proof of that with an alternate version of "Talking Dust Bowl Blues." In many ways an album like this, where there is a clear thematic unity, represents Guthrie at his best better than a greatest hits collection. If you all you have head of the American folk tradition are Dylan and Springsteen, those who carry on the tradition, then it is about time you went back to the beginning and listed to the stories and songs of Woody Guthrie. Read more ›

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