Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie

by Ed Cray

Book Overview

A patriot and a political radical, Woody Guthrie captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs. He was marked by the FBI as a subversive. He lived in fear of the fatal fires that stalked his family and of the mental illness that snared his mother. At forty-two, he was cruelly silenced by Huntington's disease. Ed Cray, the first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive, has created a haunting portrait of an American...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393327361
• ISBN13: 9780393327366
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant read!

This is an amazing biography on one the most legendary folk musicians ever! People forget that without Guthrie, we wouldn’t have Bob Dylan. His life was an incredible journey.

A USEFUL, WELL WRITTEN BIOGRAPHY - Good Read

Mr. Cray does a nice job on this one indeed! Not only do we get a very well researched biography of a very interesting life, but we get a very good picture of the times he lived. We are now being flooded with works addressing this era of American History, rightfully so, and this work gives us another "slant," one we may find missing in other works. I must admit to being one of those who knew only one side of the Guthrie story, the musical, and was certainly ignorant of what made, what caused that wonderful music to exist. It is good to be able to put the music and the man into proper prespective. I do think we have to take care and not be overly judgemental of the Gutheries of this world and their chosen life styles and politics. Most sucessful men and women in our history have certainly had their dark side. We have to be able to take the good with the bad and I feel this biography has done a woderful job in pointing this out. I found the text to be easy on the eye, facts well presented and foot notes to be wonderful (almost as helpful and interesting as the bulk of the book itself). I highy recommend this one.

The guy behind the folk hero

Ed Cray's new biography goes a long way toward clearing up some of the hagiographic fog that's collected around Guthrie since his long illness and death. The romantic picture of Guthrie is that he was an artistically restless drifter who threw in his lot with the farmers and laborers of the Depression era. There's some truth to that picture. Guthrie undoubtedly was a good poet and wrote some good songs and prose (although his skills as a performer were uneven), was extremely restless, and seems to have had a genuine concern for the poor. But these bare facts only scratch the surface of his complexity. He was also a self-indulgent tomcat who took little responsibility for his many children; a prima dona performer who frequently insisted doing things his way or no way; a person whose idiosyncracies and freeloading perpetually tried the patience of his friends and acquaintances (see, for example, Cray's account of Woody's refusal to carry his weight when he lived in the Almanac Singers cooperative); and a chronic mythmaker, in both his memoir and his tales, when it came to his relations with the working class. In the eyes of many (although certainly not all), there apparently was a charm to him that overrode his blemishes. But the blemishes are still there. In a curious way, the people who come across as the real heroes of this biography are the less celebrated types such as Pete Seeger and Will Geer, both victims of the McCarthy witchhunt, and Marjorie Greenblatt Mazia, Arlo's mom and Guthrie's second wife, who nursed Woody during the final years, long after they were divorced. Compared to them, Woody both lived a pretty comfortable life and was less committed to the farmers and laborers he sang about. Touchingly, it was these same people whose loyalty to Guthrie helped make him into one of America's folk heroes after his death.

A 'you are there' feel to discussions of notable moments

The music of folk singer Woody Guthrie's works lives on in Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man: a biography which charts his coming of age, his many associations with influential musicians of the times, and his shows and stage presentations. Unlike other biographies, Ramblin' Man takes a personal approach and presents a 'you are there' feel to discussions of notable moments in Guthrie's life, offers from booking agents, and stage appearances. Ramblin Man reads with all the passion and drama of the novel but is a solid factual review of Woody Guthrie's inherently fascinating life and times.

Woody Guthrie, Inspiring, Imperfect Hero

You may disagree with Woody Guthrie's politics, or you might not even know who he was, but you know his music. "This Land is Your Land," for instance, is known as "America's folk national anthem," and unlike the real national anthem, normal people can hit all the notes. It used to be taught in public schools; I wonder if it still is, since it might be a little too, well, communal for our current philosophy of carving out one's own sector for profit. Guthrie wrote the song as a response to the treacly "God Bless America," not because he wanted something secular but because he failed to see how God had blessed the sharecroppers and hoboes and Okies Guthrie lived with. "Do Re Mi," "Oklahoma Hills," and a bunch of children's tunes are part of his legacy as well, thousands of songs, mostly one-offs which no one wrote down or recorded. He would easily tear out a rhyme and a tune, and did so passionately whenever he felt for a cause. Frequently inspired, he was also unreliable, irresponsible, and grimy, a difficult man to live with. In Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie (Norton), Ed Cray has given a full portrait of an influential man whose songs and stories are legendary, but has brought forth both legend and truth, and sorted between them nicely. Guthrie, despite his claims to the contrary, had a middle-class upbringing. His father was, of all things, a successful real estate dealer, who was too busy to pay the boy much attention. His mother was distant and uninterested. He was a dedicated student only when he wanted to be; he would listen to local singers and imitate guitar records for hours. In 1937, the 25-year-old Guthrie lit out for California (leaving his wife), by freight train or hitchhiking, as did other migrants. On the road and within the state "he was among people who understood hunger" in camps and shantytowns, and the sense of unfairness to others would never leave him. He never officially joined the Communist party; he was too independent for that (or, "They wouldn't have him," according to his first wife). He did write regularly for the Daily Worker, but instead of earnest propaganda, he presented an aw-shucks column full of personal commentary. He admired Will Rogers, and much of what he wrote for newspapers shows it: "I aint a communist necessarily, but I have been in the red all my life." All three of his wives learned that he did exactly what he wanted, drank too much if he chose, left whenever he decided to, and chased skirts with enthusiasm and success. He had his share of selflessness, and even considerable heroism; included here are stories about his service in World War II that would make any American proud.The most difficult part of the book, unsurprisingly, is Guthrie's descent into neurological doom by the strange affliction Huntington's chorea. It was probably the illness that sent his mother to an asylum, and it gradually took away his ability to play, walk, talk, and think. As sad as thi

An excellent and well-researched book

This is an excellent and well-researched book. It provides many new insights and much new information about Guthrie. Also, "Ramblin' Man" makes a perfect companion piece with Joe Klein's book "Woody Guthrie; A Life" (which came out over 20 years ago) Woody Guthrie was America's greatest songwriter, with a heart of gold and an indestructible spirit. "Ramblin' Man" is a lovely and inspiring biography of Guthrie.