Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues
by Woody Guthrie
From the album: Dust Bowl Ballads: Volume 1
Track 1 of 6 on Dust Bowl Ballads: Volume 1 (1940).
Lyrics for Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues
Back in 1927 I had a little farm and I called that Heaven When the prize's 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, cold 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 then started rockin' and 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 was goin' purty fast, I wasn't even stoppin' A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn poppin' Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bust down of some kind There was a feller there, mechanic feller, said it was engine trouble Way up yonder, on a mountain curve I was way up yonder, in a piney wood And I gave that rollin' Ford a shove And I was gonna coast as far as I could Commence coastin', pickin' up speed It 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 flyin' squirrel And it flew halfway around the world Scattered wives and childrens all over the side of that mountain We got out to the West Coast broke So dad-gum hungry, I thought I'd croke And I bummed up a spud or two And 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 little bit thinner Some of these here politicians could have seen through it
Listen On
More from Dust Bowl Ballads: Volume 1
- Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues
- Blowing Down This Road
- Do Re Mi
- Dust Cain't Kill Me
- Tom Joad-Part 1
- Tom Joad-Part 2