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Lyr Add: Beluthahatchee Bill

18 Jun 16 - 12:12 AM (#3796342)
Subject: Lyr Add: Beluthahatchee Bill
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Beluthahatchee Bill
Woody Guthrie

Name that I was born with, name that I've got still,
Rings out by the sound of Beluthahatchee Bill;
You Kluxers tried to scare me, with your words of swill,
But you'll never scare me none, not Beluthahatchee Bill.
Beluthahatchee Bill, old Beluthahatchee Bill,
Freedom-lovin', freedom-huntin', easy-ridin' Bill;
You can swing me and hang me, and beat me to your fill.
But you'll never slack up my speed none, not Beluthahatchee Bill.

I'm from down through South America, like mossy mossy moss,
I'm from up across old Canada, where Paul Bunyan got so lost;
I'm from Pittsburg Beer and Gary Steel, and you know I tell you true,
When I tell you I'm a Christian, a Buddhist and a Jew.
You tortured me with blow-torches, and dumped me from your car,
You tried to burn my home up, and set my woods on fire;
You can dynamite my house, and dig my grave upon the hill,
But you'll never keep me in it, not Beluthahatchee Bill.

Beluthahatchee Lands means Never-Never Lands,
Never-never bloodied by your bloody hands,
Never-never caught in your kid-like traps,
Never-never drained like turpentine saps,
Never-never scared by all your screams and squeals,
Never-never done in by all your dirty deals.
You can try your best to kill us, but you know you never will,
Ever scratch a finger of Beluthahatchee Bill!

[Kennedy, Stetson, The Clan Unmasked, (Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama Press, 1990, pp. 271-272)]


YT: Alvah Allen and Chris Wilson Beluthahatchee Bill

Digital Commons for Beluthahatchee historical marker, Switzerland, FL.

18 Jun 16 - 02:56 AM (#3796350)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Beluthahatchee Bill
From: Joe Offer

I can't find a Woody Guthrie recording of "Beluthahatchee Bill, but here's one by Alvah Allen:

Click here for a page on the Beluthahatchee Marker in Switzerland, Florida. Here's the text that's on the marker:
    " Beluthahatchee" as defined by noted author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is a mythical "Florida Shangri-la, where all unpleasantness is forgiven and forgotten." When Florida author/activist Stetson Kennedy (b. 1916) moved here, the site was named and set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. After WWII, he infiltrated and exposed the KKK and other domestic terrorist groups. Kennedy's books include Palmetto Country (1942), Southern Exposure (1946), Jim Crow Guide (1956), and The Klan Unmasked (1957). The latter two were translated around the world. This site served as headquarters for his pioneering 1950 "total equality" write-in bid for the U.S. Senate. His book, After Appomattox, was completed here in 1995, with the help of his wife Joyce Ann. That year he won the Gustavus Meyer Award for doing the most to combat bigotry in the USA. In April 2005 Kennedy was inducted into the Florida Artist’s Hall of Fame. Beluthahatchee also served as a Florida hangout for America's legendary folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie. Here, Guthrie completed his autobiographical book, Seeds of Man, and over 80 Florida songs, including "Beluthahatchee Bill.” This site was designated a Literary Landmark by Friends of Library-USA in 2003."
This marker is located on State Route 13 between Wedgewood and Roberts Rd. It was placed by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners and the Florida Department of State.

The sign is near Beluthahatchee Park (the home of Stetson Kennedy) on the St. John/s River, about 30 miles south of Jacksonville.

18 Jun 16 - 11:36 AM (#3796404)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Beluthahatchee Bill
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Joe: fwiw, don't believe Woody Guthrie ever recorded it in a proper studio though there may be a field recording hiding out their somewhere.