The Songs He Sang
Talking Dust Bowl: Lyrics
As performed by Cisco Houston
Woody Guthrie
Appears on:Back in Nineteen Twenty Sseven Had a little farm that I called Heaven Well the price was up and the rain come down And I hauled my crops all into town I got the money I bought clothes and groceries Fed the kids raised a family Then the rains quit and the winds got high And a black old dust storm filled the sky So I swapped my farm for a Ford machine and poured it full of this gasoline And I started I was rocking and rolling Right on out to the California line I was way up yonder on a mountain road I was way up there in the piney wood And I give my rollin' Ford a shove And figgured I'd coast as fur as I could Commenced coasting Pickin up speed Hairpin turn I didn't make it Well man alive, I'm tellin you That the fiddles and the guitars really flew That Ford took off like a flying squirrel And it flew halfway around this world Scattered wives and childrens All over the side of that mountain I was way out yonder on a desert road I had a hot motor had a heavy load And I was going pretty fast wasn't even stopping Bouncing up and down like popcorn popping Had a bustdown -- Kind of a nervous bustdown The mechanic fellow there called it "engine trouble" Well I got to California so doggone broke And so doggone hungry I thought I'd choke But I bummed up a spud or two And my wife cooked up a 'tater stew It was mighty thin stew You could read a magazine right through it Well I always did guess And I always did figure That if that there stew had been a little bit thinnner Some of these politicians could've seen through it
Of note:
No one does the talking songs better than Cisco. Reproach without bile, humor amid disaster. Another sterling example.
We welcome any suggestions, contributions, or questions. You send it, we'll consider using it. Help us spread the word. And the music. And thanks for visiting.
