Woody Guthrie songbook


Background

Woody Guthrie including the following note in a 1930s songbook distributed to listeners who wanted the words to his recordings had the following message:

 

'This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin' it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.'