Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd"

A few months ago, I got to thinking about Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd."  I should add a disclaimer that I don't know Guthrie's version (I think I heard it once, but that was years ago); I know only the Byrds' version from Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  I have Guthrie's version on CD, but I can't get the disc to work.

In transcribing the lyrics of the Byrds' version, I found multiple instances of parallel structure:

• "Then Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain; the deputy grabbed a gun"
• "And he ran through the trees and bushes; he lived a life of shame" parallels with "He ran through the trees and bushes on the Canadian river shore"
• "Was in Oklahoma city; it was on a Christmas day,"
• "'You say that I’m an outlaw; you say that I’m a thief'"
• three instances between "As through this life you travel, you’ll meet some funny men" and "As through this life you ramble, as through this life you roam" (along with alliteration between "ramble" and "roam")
• "Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

The first line also struck me as significant.  In the Byrds' version, it's "Well, gather ‘round near, children, a story I will tell."  I think it's pretty likely that this is where Bob Dylan got the idea for the first line of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - "Come, gather 'round, people."  Both directly address the audience.

Those two lines by themselves aren't very convincing, but Dylan mentions Guthrie in two other songs, both on his debut album Bob Dylan.  One is obvious - "Song to Woody."  The other is more subtle.  In "Talkin' New York," there're the lines "Now, a very great man once said / That some people rob you with a fountain pen."  The "very great man" is Woody Guthrie, and "Pretty Boy Floyd" is the song Dylan is referencing.  The first two lines of the last verse (in the Byrds' version, at least) are "As through this life you travel, you’ll meet some funny men / Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen."  Granted Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin' are two years apart, but I think Guthrie's influence on Dylan was great enough that the connection between "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is valid.

Incidentally, I've covered both "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Pretty Boy Floyd," although both are based on other versions - Peter, Paul, & Mary's version of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and the Byrds' version of "Pretty Boy Floyd."

Fifth Anniversary

To-day marks five years of playing guitar.  I won't say too much about that because everything I would say is in the post I wrote last year.  Really, the only thing that's changed is that I've learned more about guitar chord inversions.

In order to mark this anniversary, I recorded the first song that I learned to play - Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'."  When I learned how to play it, I actually had not heard Dylan's original version; I was going off Peter, Paul, and Mary's version, so my version follows their arrangement.

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Four Years

Four years ago to-day, I had a headache.  I don't remember why (if I ever knew at all), but despite that headache or perhaps even because of it, I finally sat down to figure out how to play the guitar that I'd owned for three months.

I listened to the Peter, Paul, and Mary version of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" with the chords and their corresponding pictures set out in front of me, and I learned to play it on the $100 guitar I'd gotten at the grocery store.

The main motivating reason that I wanted a guitar in the first place was because of a song by the Byrds - "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star."

So you want to be a rock and roll star
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
And take some time and learn how to play 

They just made it sound so easy.  It wasn't until months later that I would learn that it was actually a satirical song aimed - in part - at the Monkees, whose television show I had recently discovered and was watching and enjoying.

During those four years, I've learned a lot about music.  I got an acoustic guitar, then a mandolin, a bass guitar, a second electric guitar, and - just a month ago - an electric twelve-string.  It seems I write something like this every year or so, but I always see it as a process.  There isn't really an end to anything; it's just a continual process of getting better and learning more.  Recently, I've taken greater steps toward that.  Currently, I'm in the midst of February Album Writing month, and in order to challenge the monopoly that stringed instruments have held on my composing virtually since its inception, I'm constricting myself to non-stringed instruments.  Electric piano has formed the basis so far, largely due to Rod Argent's influence.

But because I've been thinking a lot about music lately, I thought I would create a blog that's more suited towards long text posts than my tumblr is.  Here, I can actually flesh out ideas I have without feeling guilty that I'm taking up too much space on anyone's dashboard.  (I can also avoid the insane fanatics that creep on the tumblr tags.)

Academically, I'm an English major, and I've taken that method of thinking and applied it to song lyrics.  I've come up with some interesting ideas, yet there doesn't seem to be any place to discuss song lyrics to any great depth, or at least not the songs lyrics that I listen to.  So that's why I started this - to talk about the music I enjoy and the thoughts I have about it.

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