Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie

Abstract

Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie. By Mark Allan Jackson. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. Pp. ? + 310, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, illustrations, notes, index. $50.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.)Mark Allen Jackson's study, Prophet Singer: The Voice and. Vision of Woody Guthrie, brings together important information about many of Woody Guthrie's songs. The prologue's subtitle, "Giving a Voice to Living Songs," states the author's theme, and he discusses different opinions about Woody's influence in literature. This is not a biography, although much information about Woody's background and life is provided. In his thorough examination of the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City, the Folklife Archives in the Library of Congress, the Ralph Rinzler Archives in the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural History, and other collections, the author has identified the historical and political settings of specific song genres (two not included are children's songs and cowboy songs), which are taken up chapter by chapter and exemplified by particular Guthrie songs. The author does not, however, attempt to touch upon each of the thousands of songs Woody wrote, and throughout the book are illustrations by Woody, along with historic photographs.The opening chapter offers a detailed account of "This Land Is Your Land," Woody's best-known song - it is "the main means through which the American people have encountered Guthrie's voice and vision" (21 ) . Irving Berlin's patriotic song "God Bless America" had been made into an immensely popular 1938 recording by Kate Smith. Woody did not like "God Bless America," perceiving that it excluded the poor, the disenfranchised, and the working man, so in early 1940 he wrote "God Blessed America," with "God blessed America for me" as the last line in each verse. Jackson says that the tune possibly came from a popular Carter Family gospel song, "This World Is On Fire." I have collected and studied Woody's songs and writings for more than fifty years, and I can vouch for that. The tune is an adaptation of the Carter Family song. Jackson shows in his coverage of other songs that Woody did not compose melodies; he adapted melodies. After writing the lyrics, Woody set "God Blessed America" aside until Moses Asch encouraged him to change the line "God blessed America for me" to "This land was made for you and me," and the result was worldwide popularity for the song.In the chapter titled "Busted, Disgusted, Down and Out," on Woody's portrayal of the problems and dismal life many agricultural workers and their families experienced during the 1930s, Jackson shows how songs heard by Woody during his childhood (traditional and country songs sympathetic to working folks) became the foundations for many of the songs he wrote in the Dust Bowl period and later. …