Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/16/2015:  14:30:29

An unrehearsed first try of Woody Guthrie's song "Pretty Boy Floyd" at Montreal's Yellow Door Coffeehouse Friday Night Open Stage of 15 May 2015. Bashu Naimi-Roy (accordion) and Isabella Harned (violin) are members of the band "Saint Lawrence Warehouse Company", who were the featured performers that evening, so I took advantage of their presence to reconstitute our little pick-up band that we call "Ambiguous Armadillo". This arrangement of "Pretty boy Floyd" has a few extra lyrics that are not in the Guthrie original, adding a few details to the story.

I think, with some work, especially to the phrasing and delivery of the lyrics, and in everyone becoming familiar with the irregularity of the lengths of the lines, there's potential for us to turn this into something pretty good.

For those interested in such things, my banjo is tuned eAEAC#.

Here are the lyrics and chords:

Pretty Boy Floyd                   

Key of A (eAEAC#)                                             

Words and music by Woody Guthrie

March 1939 (1947 version)  

As modified, and with additional lyrics, by Marc Nerenberg

(© Copyright (renewed) 1958 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.)

 

         A                                                D           A

Come gather 'round me children / a story I will tell

           E                                             D                           A

‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd the outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well.

The dust bowl stole the top-soil / and the bankers stole the homes

All throughout Oklahoma / where Pretty Boy Floyd was from

It was in the town of Shawnee / on a Saturday afternoon

His wife beside him in his wagon / as into town they rode.

 

There a deputy sheriff approached him / in a manner rather rude

Using vulgar words of language / that his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain / and the deputy grabbed his gun

And in the fight that followed / he laid that deputy down.

He took to the trees and timbers / and he lived a life of shame

Every crime in Oklahoma / was added to his name

 

Yes, he took to those trees and timbers / on the Canadian River's shore

But Pretty Boy found a welcome / at a many a farmer's door.

Yes, there's a many a starving farmer / the same old story told

How that outlaw paid their mortgage / and saved their family’s little home.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger / that come to beg a meal

Then underneath his napkin / left a thousand dollar bill.

 

It was in Oklahoma City / all upon a Christmas Day

Come a car-load full of groceries / with a letter that did say:

“You say that I'm an outlaw, / you say that I'm a thief.

Well, here's a Christmas dinner / for all your families on relief.”

When he robbed banks he’d burn the files / filled with mortgages of the town.

He saved all those people’s houses / ‘till the police (they) shot him down.

 

Now as through this world I’ve rambled / I’ve seen all kinds of men

Some will rob you with a six-gun / and some with a fountain pen.

But as through your life you travel / as through your life you roam

You won't never see an outlaw / drive a family from their home.

So gather 'round me children / this old story I will tell

‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd the outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well.

Here it is embedded from YouTube:

And here it is attached from my BHO video page:

VIDEO: Pretty Boy Floyd (click to view)

JanetB - Posted - 05/16/2015:  14:57:52

Wow, Marc!  That's enuff said.

BanjoFlyboy - Posted - 05/16/2015:  15:07:51

I lived in OK for a good many years.  First I heard that Pretty Boy Floyd was a modern day Robin Hood!  Enjoyed the tune 

ramjo - Posted - 05/16/2015:  15:08:18

Marc--Another great adaptation of a Woody song added to your inventory. This one puts the folk in Folk Music for me.

About those lyrics you added regarding stealing the mortgages and burning them. Is that story part of Pretty Boy's legend that you discovered or did you just make them up? (If it didn't really happen, it should have, imho. )

Thanks for this. You do it like you own it, as usual. I'm going to revisit your other settings of Woody songs on your home page.

~Robert

Edited by - ramjo on 05/16/2015 15:11:30

Bill Rogers - Posted - 05/16/2015:  16:13:11

  When we lived in Oklahoma in the '50s, bad=mouthing Pretty Boy Floyd in NE Oklahoma usually meant a fight.

Randy Escobedo - Posted - 05/16/2015:  16:16:33

Very nice! The Earl Scruggs Revue did a great version too.

Bill - Posted - 05/16/2015:  17:10:55

Top notch job.

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/16/2015:  17:57:23

Thank you so much folks. I really appreciate the kind words!

And Robert, yes, I did do some research to understand the song better before beginning to work on a version for myself (basically, Wikipedia and a little more web-surfing) and the stuff about him burning the mortgage papers while robbing banks is true. It's what endeared him to the people of Oklahoma.

Of course, it's always possible that getting the people of Oklahoma on his side and willing to hide him was the very cynical purpose behind his doing that in the first place. The song is definitely a highly romanticized view of Pretty Boy Floyd, completely failing to mention all the people he killed during shoot-outs as he fled from bank robberies.

But i see it more as a song about the greed of banks profiting from the misfortune of poor farmers unable to pay their mortgages when the dust bowl and depression hit. And as such, it still has relevance today. The lines I added all go to reinforce that idea. These specifically are the lines I added:

The dust bowl stole the top-soil / and the bankers stole the homes

All throughout Oklahoma / where Pretty Boy Floyd was from

and

When he robbed banks he’d burn the files / filled with mortgages of the town.

He saved all those people’s houses / ‘till the police (they) shot him down.

 

Bill Rogers - Posted - 05/16/2015:  22:44:19

Ironic, because those mortgages were likely those of mostly middle-class folks.  Working-class types generally couldn't have afforded buying a house, even in good times.  I don't think of Pretty Boy Floyd as a middle-class hero--but it seems that's what he might have been.  I suspect he's still a hero in the Cookson Hills.

lewis_86 - Posted - 05/17/2015:  05:56:22

Nice one Marc, enjoyed that. Great story too, and it's always nice to add yer own verses to expand the story.

davidppp - Posted - 05/17/2015:  13:46:06

Who raised those two young'uns? Pretty Boy Floyd and Do Re Mi are songs I've sung and played since the beginning of time and certainly for my own kids nearly every time the banjo or guitar came out. For my younger one, that was at least every bedtime.

davidppp - Posted - 05/17/2015:  14:35:50

I have a history/economics question:

Aren't we talking about farm country -- single family farms often heavily mortgaged for equipment and seed? In poor years, they still had to pay the banks -- hence the wave of foreclosures. The Almanac Singers promoted the "farmer/labor Party" vision, but that kind of united movement was not embraced by all. In any case, is the middle-vs-working class distinction clear for owners of small, single family farms -- especially when they were going broke and before any subsidies?

banjobrewer - Posted - 05/17/2015:  18:48:09

First heard this from Pete Seeger album of my dad's. I am sure he learned it directly from Woody. My dad just saw Arlo in concert last week. Nice job Marc I enjoyed it.

Edited by - banjobrewer on 05/17/2015 18:49:01

Lew H - Posted - 05/18/2015:  08:48:08

Marc, This is a long-time favorite song for me.  You do a great job of singing and put in some fabulous banjo licks on it.  Keep 'em coming!  Thanks for the added lyrics.

Marc Nerenberg - Posted - 05/18/2015:  16:18:47

More multiple thanks! Lots!

And here's a surprise - an article form Sing-Out magazine about this very song appeared today on-line: singout.org/2015/05/18/a-walki...bin-hood/

Tom Berghan - Posted - 05/20/2015:  11:42:48

I like it Marc!  I had not heard this song performed since the sixties! 

One certainly doesn't hear it very often these days . . . well heck, I guess the fact is that Woody is becoming more obscure with each passing year now.  When I was a kid growing up in he Pacific NW, "Roll on Columbia" was still sung in our public schools when the music teacher would visit . . . probably private ones too.  I believe music programs died a long time ago too.  Do kids even know "I've been working on the Railroad" anymore?  Speaking of which . . . you should do that one!  It's a good song but suffered too many corny versions - it needs a champion Marc.

Lots of great lines that Woody wrote in Pretty Bot Floyd . . . my favorite being "I’ve seen all kinds of men

Some will rob you with a six-gun / and some with a fountain pen"

Zischkale - Posted - 05/21/2015:  14:35:38

I'm a fan of the Byrd's rendition (I think John Hartford picks on that one?) -- really like how you've stretched that vocal melody out, extending those lyrics. Powerful voice, that may be my highest priority thing to work on!

Great work as usual!