Take it easy, but take it.
It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people
I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.
Was a great high wall there that tried to stop me. Was a great big sign there said private Property but on the back side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me.
Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.
If we fix it so's you can't make money on war, we'll all forget what we're killing folks for.
Some men rob you with a six-gun -- others rob you with a fountain pen.
I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law.
The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine.
The best way to get to know any bunch of people is to go and listen to their music.
There's several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and counties where it ain't too healthy to talk too loud, speak your mind, or even vote like you want to, folks have found other ways of getting the word around. One of the mainest ways is by singing.
Life has a habit of not staying hitched. You got to ride it like you find it.
I better quit my talking 'cause I told you all I know But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is done, That'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.
Life's pretty tough . . . you're lucky if you live through it.
I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that.
Love is the only medicine I believe in.
One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!
Anyone who used more than three chords is just showing off.
You can't write a good song about a whorehouse unless you've been in one.
Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.
Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.
The words are the important thing. Don't worry about tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow, and you've got a new tune.
Left wing. Right wing. Chicken wing.
A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.
I ain't a communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.
This machine kills fascists.
A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes. I slept on the ground in the light of the moon. On the edge of the city you'll see us and then, we come with the dust and we go with the wind.
You oil field workers, come and listen to me I'm goin' to tell you a story about old John D. That company union made a fool out of me. That company union don't charge no dues It leaves you a-singing them Rockefeller blues. That company union made a fool out of me. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin', rollin' over the sea. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin' over the sea.
Now as through this world I ramble, I see lots of funny men, Some rob you with a six gun, And some with a fountain pen.
Let me be known as just the man that told you something you already knew.
My eyes has been my camera taking pictures of the world and my songs has been my messages that I tried to scatter across the back sides and along the steps of the fire escapes and on the window sills and through the dark halls...
The world is filled with people who are no longer needed. And who try to make slaves of all of us. And they have their music and we have ours. Theirs, the wasted songs of a superstitious nightmare. And without their music and ideological miscarriages to compare our songs of freedom to, we'd not have any opposite to compare music with --- and like the drifting wind, hitting against no obstacle, we'd never know its speed, its power....
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, by the Relief Office, I saw my people -As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.
This land is made for you and me.
If you play more than two chords, you're showing off.
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.
It's round the world I've traveled; it's round the world I've roamed; but I've yet to see an outlaw drive a family from its home
All about a human being is, it's a great big hoping machine.
If you walk across my camera I will flash the world your story.
Anyone who uses more than two chords is just showing off.
All you can write is what you see.
The world is filled with people who are no longer needed -- and who try to make slaves of all of us -- and they have their music and we have ours.
I know the police cause you trouble They cause trouble everywhere But when you die and go to heaven You find no policeman there
I got started in Oklahoma. That's where I was born. Population down there is one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third white people.
All of you cowboys, fight for your land.
Okemah was one of the singingest, square dancingest, drinkingest, yellingest, preachingest, walkingest, talkingest, laughingest, cryingest, shootingest, fist fightingest, bleedingest, gamblingest, gun, club and razor carryingest of our ranch towns and farm towns, because it blossomed out into one of our first Oil Boom Towns.
If you want to learn something, just steal it.
Left wing, right wing, chicken wing.
I have decided long ago that my songs and ballads would not get the hugs and kisses of the capitalistic experts.
I ain't a Communist necessarily, but I have been in the red all my life.
Do Re Mi California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see, But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi
Nobody living can ever stop me. As I go walking my freedom highway. Nobody living can make me turn back. This land was made for you and me.
