Pastures of Plenty

"Pastures of Plenty" is a 1941 composition by Woody Guthrie. Describing the travails and dignity of migrant workers in North America, it is evocative of the world described in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The tune is based on the ballad "Pretty Polly",^[1][2] a traditional English-language folk song from the British Isles that was also well known in the Appalachian region of North America.

"Pastures of Plenty"
Song by Woody Guthrie
Language	English
Published	1941
Songwriter(s)	Woody Guthrie

"Pastures of Plenty" was also the title of a book about Guthrie by Dave Marsh, including material written by Woody Guthrie, Pastures of Plenty: A Self-Portrait, published in 1990.

Recorded versions

• Woody Guthrie
• Harry Belafonte
• Bob Dylan
• Tom Paxton
• Jesse Colin Young
• Peter Tevis (The instrumental version of this song composed by Ennio Morricone was later used as the theme to A Fistful of Dollars)
• Peter, Paul and Mary
• Dave Van Ronk (on Just Dave Van Ronk)
• Ramblin' Jack Elliot
• Flatt and Scruggs
• Solas
• John McCutcheon^[3]
• Alison Krause and Union Station - new version with updated lyrics, on “Lonely Runs Both Ways,” 2004

Published versions

• Rise Up Singing page 55

Popular culture

The phrase is used in a different context in the song "Talking Vietnam Pot-Luck Blues" by Tom Paxton.

The line "we come with the dust and we go with the wind" reappears as "that come with the dust and are gone with the wind" in Bob Dylan's "Song to Woody".

The song is referenced in Phil Ochs's "Bound for Glory" in the lyric, "And it's "Pastures of Plenty" wrote the dustbowl balladeer."

Alison Krause and Union Station recorded a new version featuring updated lyrics on their 2004 album “Lonely Goes Both Ways.”