Amazing autograph lyrics for an apparently unpublished song by Woody Guthrie, one page, 8.5 x 11, titled at the top, "Brown Christmas,” and signed at the bottom, “W. W. Woody Guthrie, 5899, F.D.H., N.Y.C., December 16th 1949,” who adds a large sketch of a rattlesnake coiling around a woman, imagery in keeping with the song’s lyrics, which read, in full: “I’m thinking ‘bout a brown Christmas / out on the desert where I grew / where the snakes all rattle at the hungry cattle / that leave their dry bones on the sand; / I’m dreaming ‘bout a brownskin cowgirl / with every Christmas card I draw; may your sky be sunny and blue / and may all your Christmases be brown!” In fine condition, with staple holes along the left edge. When Guthrie died in 1967, the folk song-writing legend left behind more than 3,000 songs, most of them unpublished and unrecorded. An amusing take on Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby’s classic 1942 song ‘White Christmas,’ reimagined by Guthrie with lyrics geared towards a Southwestern audience accustomed to holidays with more sand than snow. Guthrie’s desert-themed doodles lend wonderful folk story imagery, with his “brownskin cowgirl,” twisting rattlesnake, and apparent nearby campfire combining for a most rare and desirable display piece.
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