Tom Joad's Inspiration (Woody at 100)

In 1940 after John Ford made John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath into a popular film, Woody Guthrie was finding some fame while living with various friends in New York. In the biography Woody Guthrie: A Life, Joe Klein explained that as Victor Records worked to produce a set of Guthrie’s Dust Bowl ballads, the company asked Guthrie to write a song that would capitalize on Grapes of Wrath‘s popularity. (p. 163.)

It was a good fit to have the balladeer who had first-hand experience with the Dust Bowl write a song about a fictional character who experienced it. In the clip below, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott discusses the film.

Writing “Tom Joad”

So, Guthrie went to work on his song. One night Guthrie asked his friend the young Pete Seeger where he could get a typewriter to use to compose the song related to the film. Seeger took Guthrie to the lower East Side to see an artist friend with a typewriter.

Guthrie sat down at the machine with a half gallon of wine and began writing, periodically going to his guitar to test out what he was writing. When Seeger woke up the next morning, he found the song written on the typewriter next to an empty wine bottle and Guthrie passed out on the floor.

The seventeen-verse song summarized Tom Joad’s story. Despite the length, the record company recorded the entire song on May 3, 1940 in its New Jersey studios. Then, the record company had to use both sides of a record to get it to fit.

Guthrie was usually dissatisfied with his songs. But he was proud of this song, saying, “I think the ballad of the Joads is the best thing I’ve done so far.”

The Music from “John Hardy”

Guthrie took the music for “Tom Joad” from an outlaw ballad he had been playing, “John Hardy.” In the clip below, Roscoe Holcomb sings “John Hardy,” where you can hear the music behind Guthrie’s “Tom Joad.”

Holcomb, who grew up in Daisy, Kentucky, recorded a number of traditional songs in the 1960s after John Cohen and Smithsonian Folkways discovered the authentic voice in the Appalachian Mountains.

Guthrie’s Lyrics

While the music of “John Hardy” helped inspire Guthrie to write “Tom Joad,” Guthrie’s lyrics captured Steinbeck’s book and Henry Fonda’s portrayal of Joad in Ford’s film. At the end of all the book, the film, and the song, Tom Joad makes an impassioned speech to his mother. And Guthrie included that key scene in his lyrics.

Wherever little children are hungry and cry,
Wherever people ain’t free.
Wherever men are fightin’ for their rights,
That’s where I’m a-gonna be, Ma.
That’s where I’m a-gonna be.”

How “Tom Joad” Inspired Others

While several sources influenced Guthrie, he of course influenced others. In particular, “Tom Joad” influenced Bruce Springsteen making an album about troubled men and women.

Consistent with recent Springsteen comments that he found “fatalism tempered by a practical idealism” in Guthrie’s works, the title track of Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) follows Guthrie’s song in capturing Joad’s conversation with his mom.

Now Tom said “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy,
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries,
Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air,
Look for me mom I’ll be there;
Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand,
Or a decent job or a helpin’ hand,
Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free,
Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.”

It is somewhat amazing that one conversation from Steinbeck’s book has resonated so much for other artists. But the words are timeless.

As long as there are economic inequalities, the words about fighting for the common people will resonate in society. Steinbeck’s version passed on to John Ford who then connected to Woody Guthrie who then connected to Bruce Springsteen. And the line will continue.

Already, Springsteen has passed the Joad mantle onto Tom Morello, who performed a Guthrie song during a May Day protest, and his band Rage Against the Machine.

We do not know who will take it next. But as long as somebody’s strugglin’ to be free, Joad’s words will be there.

Rage Against the Machine’s version of the Bruce Springsteen song sounds a long way from Woody Guthrie’s guitar. But I suspect that if Woody were around today and heard the song’s critique of society’s treatment of the poor, he would be on stage with them. “That’s where I’m a-gonna be.”

{Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie in 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie too. }