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Pastures of Plenty

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"Pastures of Plenty"
Song by Woody Guthrie
LanguageEnglish
Published1941
Songwriter(s)Woody Guthrie

"Pastures of Plenty" is a 1941 composition by Woody Guthrie. Describing the travails and dignity of migrant workers in North America, it is evocative of the world described in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The tune is based on the ballad "Pretty Polly",[1][2] a traditional English-language folk song from the British Isles that was also well known in the Appalachian region of North America.

Recorded versions

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Published versions

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The phrase is used in a different context in the song "Talking Vietnam Pot-Luck Blues" by Tom Paxton.

The line "we come with the dust and we go with the wind" reappears as "that come with the dust and are gone with the wind" in Bob Dylan's "Song to Woody".

The song is referenced in Phil Ochs's "Bound for Glory" in the lyric, "And it's "Pastures of Plenty" wrote the dustbowl balladeer."

References

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  1. ^ "Pastures of Plenty · Roll On, Columbia: Woody Guthrie in the Pacific Northwest Archives".
  2. ^ "GUTHRIE, Woody: Pastures of Plenty (1940-1947)". Naxos.com.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "FAME Review: Doing our Job: John McCutcheon and Tom Chapin".