When The Curfew Blows

Guthrie

Oh the lonesomest sound, boys
I ever heard sound, boys
On the stroke of midnight
Hear the curfew blow
My body will hang, boys
On the hangman's rope, boys
On the gallows pole, boys
When the curfew blows
Hear the curfew blowin'
Hear the curfew blowin'
In the cold black midnight
Hear the curfew blow
The sheriff's men, boys
Are on my trail, boys
In the midnight wind, boys
Hear the curfew blow
And when they catch me
My body will hang, boys
On the gallows pole, boys
When the curfew blows
Hear the curfew blowin'
Hear the curfew blowin'
In the cold black midnight
Hear the curfew blow

I never really knew Woody Guthrie, but I can't help to feel that somehow I always knew Woody. This record is a collection of songs I just naturally learned and loved in my early years of playing and singing. Woody said that he wanted to be known as "the man who told you something you already knew". And for me, this is a clue into the beauty and the genius of Woody Guthrie. For he was just an ordinary man — he made all the mistakes, had all the vices, all the good and the bad things that every ordinary person has. He never gave you the feeling that he was better than you in anyway, and he never gave you the feeling that he was worse than you — but that he loved you because you were just like him, he was just like you. Somehow without thinking he capped the reality and the dream of what it meant to be an american