Grand Coulee Dam (song)

"Grand Coulee Dam" is an American folk song recorded in 1941 by Woody Guthrie.

Background

He wrote it during a brief period when he was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration to write songs as part of a documentary film project about the dam and related projects.

The song was part of the

Although the intended documentary film was not completed until 1949, Guthrie's songs were recorded in

The Wabash Cannonball".^[2] Guthrie's recording was reissued on the Folkways album Bound For Glory in 1956,^[3]

and subsequently on numerous compilations of Guthrie's songs.

The song was later recorded by British

British pop charts in April 1958, rising to number six on the chart.^[4] Donegan was featured performing the song in the movie Six-Five Special, a spin-off of the British TV show of the same name.^[5][6] One critic has written:^[7]

[I]t remains arguable that, without recordings like [Donegan's] version of Woody's "Grand Coulee Dam", later performers (perhaps even Dylan

himself) might not have beaten their way to Guthrie's door.

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

10 of the Woody Guthrie songs/Grand Coolee Dam

1. ^ Biography at Woody Guthrie official site, p.5^{[permanent dead link]}. Accessed 15 March 2011
2. ^ Jeff Brady, Woody Guthrie's Fertile Month on the Columbia River, NPR Music. Accessed 15 March 2011
3. ^ Bound For Glory LP at Discogs.com. Accessed 15 March 2011
4. ISBN 0-00-717931-6
   .
5. ^ Image of "Grand Coulee Dam" record label. Accessed 15 March 2011
6. ^ Six-Five Special at Allmovie.com. Accessed 15 March 2011
7. ^ Michael Brocken, The British Folk Revival, 1944-2002, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, p.76

External links

• The short film Grand Coulee Dam is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.