Vigilante Man

"Vigilante Man" is a song by Woody Guthrie, recorded and released in 1940 as one of his Dust Bowl Ballads.[1]

The song is about the hired thugs ("vigilantes") who would violently chase away migrants to California trying to escape the Dust Bowl, a man-made ecological catastrophe in the American Great Plains during the 1930s. One verse refers to the murder of Preacher (Jim) Casy, a central figure in John Steinbecks' 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.[2]

The tune was taken from "Sad and Lonesome Day", a song made popular by The Carter Family; which itself borrows from "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" by Blind Lemon Jefferson.[2]

Recordings

The song has been recorded several times, including:

References

  1. "Dust Bowl Ballads". Smithsonian Folkways. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  2. Weber, Barry. Woody Guthrie: Vigilante Man at AllMusic. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
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