Wonderful Woody

I rarely think about Woody Guthrie, and that's quite the lost for me. Outside of his influence on Bob Dylan, he stands alone quite fine all by himself. While working on some homework at the computer center at my school, I paused for a moment when I heard this:

Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see
This world is such a great and a funny place to be;
Oh, the gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor,
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

The irony and sarcasm is fantastic, but it's rather depressing at the same time. Writing his lyrics like he lived his life, Woody could never feel like he truly belonged in this world--or at least this country.

The above lyrics for "I Ain't Go Home" were transformed by a young Jew from Minnesota some 22 years later into this:

Now, it don't seem to me quite so funny
What some people are gonna do f'r money.
There's a bran' new gimmick every day
Just t' take somebody's money away.
I think we oughta take some o' these people
And put 'em on a boat, send 'em up to Bear Mountain...for a picnic

Different situation, same ironic sense of people and places.