Woody Guthrie wrote this as a parody of the
Baptist hymn This World Is Not My Home, which was popularized by
the Carter Family and frequently heard in
migrant worker camps. He felt that the song encouraged people to accept their lot (of
labor and oppression,
poverty and illness) because they would one day get their reward in heaven. This didn't jibe with Woody's
worldview, so he took the tune and changed the words to something a little more accurate, a little more agitatin'.
I ain't got no home, I'm just a-ramblin' round
I'm just a wandrin' worker, I roam from town to town.
The police make it hard wherever I may go
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road
A hot and dusty road that a million feet done trod;
Rich man took my home and drove me from my door
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
Was a-farmin' on the share, and always I was poor
My crops I laid into the banker's store;
My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
Now as I look round, it's mighty plain to see
The world is such a great and a funny place to be;
The gamblin' man is rich and the workin' man is poor
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.
- Woody Guthrie -