This Month in Music (1940): Woody Guthrie released Dust Bowl Ballads

Dust Bowl Ballads Woody Guthrie

Released: July 1940 Recorded: April 26 – May 3, 1940 Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: folk

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster) Talking Dust Bowl Blues Pretty Boy Floyd * Dusty Old Dusty (So Long It’s Been Good to Know Yuh) Dust Bowl Blues * Blowin’ Down the Road (I Ain’t Going to Be Treated This Way) Tom Joad, Pt. 1 Tom Joad, Pt. 2 Do Re Mi Dust Bowl Refugee Vigilante Man Dust Cain’t Kill Me Dust Pneumonia Blues Talking Dust Bowl Blues [alternate version] ** * 1964 reissue ** 2000 reissue Total Running Time: 36:36

Rating: 4.460 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings) Quotable: “It helped define all the folk music that followed it” – William Ruhlmann, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Grapes of Wrath “When 27-year-old Woody Guthrie appeared in New York City in the winter of 1940, he struck observers as a living, breathing embodiment of the characters John Steinbeck had written about in his best-selling novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which had just been turned into a motion picture. Hailing from Oklahoma, Guthrie had a detailed knowledge of the Dust Bowl conditions that had led to an exodus of Okies west to California, where they became migrant workers in often onerous conditions, and he used that knowledge to create songs with the tunefulness of Jimmie Rodgers and the wry wit of Will Rogers. Victor Records, looking for an answer to rival Columbia’s folk singer Burl Ives, signed Guthrie and put him in a recording studio, resulting in two simultaneously released three-disc albums of 78s” AM1 known at the time as Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 1 and Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 2. Collectively they constitute a consistent concept album that roughly follows the outlines of…The Grapes of Wrath.” AM2 The Album’s Impact “Guthrie played acoustic guitar rhythmically and efficiently, occasionally also blowing on a harmonica to accompany his singing, which was full of rural diction and country twang, but still got his points across clearly. Victor got more than it bargained for in signing Guthrie. He was far more serious, and far more accomplished, than a light entertainer like Ives. The whole panoply of a national disaster was set out in his music, expressed with both humor and conviction.” AM1 “Sixty years later, listeners may hear these songs through the music Guthrie influenced, particularly the folk tunes of Bob Dylan. Either way, this is powerful music, rendered simply and directly. It was devastatingly effective when first released, and it helped define all the folk music that followed it.” AM2 The Original Release and Reissues “RCA Victor Records, the only major label for which Guthrie ever recorded, issued two three-disc 78 rpm albums, Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 1 and Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 2, in July 1940, containing a total of 11 songs.” AM2 The collection was revamped in 1964 as a single 12” LP with two songs added. When it was reissued again in 2000, another song was added and the running order was shuffled again. The Songs Here are insights into individual tracks. “The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)” “The story begins, as The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster) has it, ‘On the fourteenth day of April of 1935,’ when a giant dust storm hits the Great Plains, transforming the landscape. Shortly after, the farmers pack up their families and head west, where they have been promised there is work aplenty picking fruit in the lush valleys of California.” AM1 “Talkin’ Dust Bowl Ballad Blues” “The trip is eventful, as Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues humorously shows” AM2 “though his comic observations did nothing to hide the circumstances as he spoke in the first person of an Okie taking his family to California.” AM1 An alternate version of the song was added to the 2000 reissue. “Pretty Boy Floyd” “In Pretty Boy Floyd, he treats an ancillary subject, as the famous outlaw is valorized as a misunderstood Robin Hood. Guthrie treats his subject alternately with dry wit and defiance.” AM2 The song was not part of the original Dust Bowl Ballads in 1940 but was added in 1964 when the collection was reissued as a single 12” LP. “Dust Bowl Ballads” was also added add this point. “Blowin’ Down This Road” “Blowin’ Down This Road was more direct, with its defiant tag line, ‘I ain’t a-gonna be treated this-a-way.’” AM1 “Tom Joad” “In case the connection to The Grapes of Wrath was not clear enough, Guthrie concluded the [original] album with the two parts of Tom Joad, which was nothing less than a musical retelling of…the novel.” AM1 Because of the limitations of the 78 record format, the song was split into two parts. “Do Re Mi” Meanwhile, Do Re Mi warned “that the promises about California were false and that, as dispossessed and desperate as they might be, the Okies were better advised to stay home unless they were ready to establish themselves immediately in the West, unless they had ‘the do re mi,’ (i.e., money).” AM1 “Dust Cain’t Kill Me” “Guthrie’s songs go back and forth across this tale of woe,” AM2 sometimes focusing “on human villains, with deputy sheriffs and vigilantes providing particular trouble” AM2 and sometimes “on the horrors of the dust storm” AM2 such as on Dust Cain’t Kill Me, which finds “the singer admitting it could kill his family, for instance, but nevertheless asserting that it wouldn’t kill him.” AM1 “Dust Pneumonia Blues” He was “conscious of the deliberate contrast with Jimmie Rodgers, whose music is evoked even as he is being mocked in Dust Pneumonia Blues.” AM2

Reviews: AM1 AllMusic.com review by William Ruhlmann of original 1940 releases AM2 AllMusic.com review by William Ruhlmann of 2000 reissue TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Related DMDB Links: First posted 4/7/2008; last updated 9/5/2025.

Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Song Inductees (July 2020)

Originally posted 7/22/2020. In honor of the 10th anniversary of the DMDB blog on January 22, 2019, Dave’s Music Database launched its own Hall of Fame. This is the seventh set of song inductees. These are songs from the DMDB “rock and roll origin” list, which was created by aggregating more than 35 lists of songs instrumental to the onset of rock and roll. The top 20 songs on that list have been ranked based on overall points in Dave’s Music Database and the top ten (excluding previous inductee Bill Haley & the Comets’ “We’re Gonna Rock Around the Clock”) are being inducted here.

Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Goode” (1958) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

In “Johnny B. Goode,” Chuck Berry created a character who symbolizes an Elvis Presley-type who comes from humble beginnings and whose mother promises her son that his name will be in lights someday. MA Perhaps more than any other, the rags-to-riches song “established the sound of the rock and roll guitar.” WI Regarding the guitar intro which, ironically, is nearly a note-for-note copy of the opening solo in Louis Jordan’s 1946 “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman,” WK rock historian says “You can’t copyright guitar licks and maybe that’s good, because if you could, …we’d lose not just the Beach Boys, but essential elements of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, and Bruce Springsteen.” MA Read more.

Buddy Holly & the Crickets “That’ll Be the Day” (1957) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

“That’ll Be the Day” came about as the result of a John Wayne movie. Buddy Holly and drummer Jerry Allison went to see the Western The Searchers. Whenever a character would suggest something that wasn’t likely to happen, Wayne would proclaim, “That’ll be the day.” SF One night at Jerry’s house, Buddy suggested that it would be nice if they could record a hit song, to which Jerry replied, “That’ll be the day.” SF Holly recorded a more country-oriented version of the song in 1956 before reworking it in 1957 as the version which became one of early rock and roll’s most classic tunes. Read more.

Jerry Lee Lewis “Great Balls of Fire” (1957) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

With a musical prowess birthed as much from the black honky-tonks as the Assembly of God Church, CL Lewis concocted an uncomfortable blend of music inspired by God and the devil. Nowhere was Lewis’ musical dichotomy more on display than with “Great Balls of Fire.” Jerry Lee’s signature song was “full of Southern Baptist hellfire turned into a near-blasphemous ode to pure lust.” RS500 Read more.

Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (1957) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

This had been recorded four times, but had yet to meet with success. RS500 When producer “Cowboy” Jack Clement captured the manic energy of Lewis’ stage presence on his recording, it became “as perfect a rock and roll record as one could hope to find.” WI The blend of “a relentless, pounding boogie rhythm” AMG with lyrics that “were rather lascivious and quite shocking coming from a singer from the Bible Belt” SF made the case “that prudes really did have something to fear from rock and roll.” MA Read more.

Little Richard “Tutti Frutti” (1955) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

The 22-year-old Richard Penniman, aka “Little Richard,” was looking for a breakthrough in 1955 when he went into a New Orleans recording studio to lay down his first tracks for Specialty Records. He “started extemporizing verses of ‘Tutti Frutti,’ a risque feature of his club sets.” NRR “Kids scrambled to decipher the meaning of the sounds emitted by the pompadoured piano dervish…but really, the words weren’t nearly as important as the remorselessly frenetic beat, the propulsive piano work and the primal, screaming vocal.” TM which made the song “barely eligible for radio airplay.” MA Read more.

Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers “Who Do Fools Fall in Love?” (1956) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

“Fools” has been called “the perfect combination of commercial pop and doo-wop music.” SJ At thirteen, Frankie Lymon became the youngest artist (at that time) to top the U.K. charts. SF He had a voice that had yet to succumb to puberty and the moves and personality which served as a model for future child pop stars like Michael Jackson. FR Read more.

The Penguins “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)” (1954) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

In the 1950s, it was common practice to refashion an R&B hit as a “sanitized, big-label cover” RS500 which would be more palatable to mainstream white audiences. “Earth Angel” was no exception. The Crew-Cuts, a “schmaltzy white group” RS500 from Canada, took the song to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the first version, by the Penguins, peaked at #8. Regardless of what the charts said, however, the Penguins’ version outsold the remake and outperformed it on jukeboxes. MA Billboard called this “the top R&B record of all time.” NRR Read more.

Carl Perkins “Blue Suede Shoes” (1956) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

The “most famous rockabilly record of all time” AMG owes its existence to Johnny Cash’s stint in the Air Force and a careless dancer. Cash was a Sun Records label mate with Perkins and told him the story of servicemen lining up for food or pay with freshly-polished shoes HL and warning each other, “Don’t step on my blue suede shoes.” CR A few weeks laterHL Perkins heard someone at a dance spit out a similar line CR to his date. SA Perkins supposedly scribbled down lyrics on an old potato sack after the dance. JA It became Perkins’ biggest hit and the first song to hit the pop, R&B, and country charts in the U.S. RS500 AMG Read more.

Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel” (1956) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

RCA Records made a deal on November 22, 1955 that may be the best ever made in music history; for $40,000, an unprecedented amount at the time, they bought Elvis’ contract from Sun Records. BR1 “Heartbreak Hotel” was among the songs recorded at Elvis’ first RCA recording session in January 1956. BR1 RCA was looking for more rockabilly tunes in the vein of what he had recorded for Sun, but Presley delivered “this gloomy, downtempo number” RS500 which Sun Records founder Sam Phillips called “a morbid mess.” RS500 It went on to become the first number one song and first million-seller for Presley. RS500 Read more.

Elvis Presley “Hound Dog” (1956) Inducted July 2020 as “Rock and Roll Origin Song”

During a Vegas stint in April and May 1956, Elvis Presley saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys perform a cover of Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” and decided to work it into his own act. He performed it for a 40 million people on The Milton Berle Show on June 5, 1956. Critics mocked his controversial gyrations, calling him “Elvis the Pelvis.” However, Elvis had the last laugh. When released as the B-side of “Don’t Be Cruel,” both songs became hits and the song became his best-selling single, spending 11 weeks atop the pop chart, the longest reign of the rock era until 1992’s “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men spent 13 weeks at the pinnacle. Read more.