The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)

by Woody Guthrie

From the album: Dust Bowl Ballads

Track 1 of 14 on Dust Bowl Ballads (1940).

Duration: 03:19

Dust Bowl Ballads cover art

Lyrics for The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)

On the 14th day of April of 1935 There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky You could see that dust storm comin' The cloud looked deathlike black And through our mighty nation it left a dreadful track From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom The radio reported, we listened with alarm The wild and windy actions of this great, mysterious storm From Albuquerque and Clovis and all New Mexico They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong They thought that they could hold out But they didn't know how long Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks And the children, they was cryin' as it whistled through the cracks And the family it was crowded into their little room They thought the world had ended And they thought it was their doom Storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight We saw outside our window, where wheat fields, they had grown Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in We rattled down that highway to never come back again

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More from Dust Bowl Ballads

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