Woody Guthrie, the son of a relatively well-to-do family in Oklahoma but radicalized by the Great Depression, scoured the entire US music tradition for usable tunes.
Whether country, gospel, blues or novelty song – all sources were right for him to give his socially critical songs the necessary punch. (“This Land Is Your Land,” which he recorded while on leave from the merchant marine in 1940, drew melodically from an old gospel song called “Oh My Loving Brother.”)
Woody Guthrie also wrote a song about UFOs
The spectrum of his music soon knew no bounds. Guthrie wrote children’s songs, songs for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah and songs for the unions, he celebrated the “outlaw” Jesus and the US troops in World War II – and denounced Charles Lindbergh as a Nazi sympathizer.
He couldn’t even resist a song about flying saucers. Guthrie’s music, wrote Bob Dylan in his Chronicles, “had the staying power of humanity”.