{{Short description|Folk song by Woody Guthrie}} {{Infobox song | name = Vigilante Man | cover = <!--just the file name--> | alt = | type = song | artist = Woody Guthrie | album = Dust Bowl Ballads | B-side = | released = 1940 | recorded = | studio = | genre = {{hlist|Folk|Americana}} | length = 2:50 | label = Victor | writer = Woody Guthrie | producer = }} "'''Vigilante Man'''" is a song by Woody Guthrie, recorded and released in 1940 as one of his ''Dust Bowl Ballads''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.folkways.si.edu/woody-guthrie/dust-bowl-ballads/american-folk-struggle-protest/music/album/smithsonian |title=Dust Bowl Ballads |website=Smithsonian Folkways |access-date=September 30, 2016}}</ref>
The song is about the hired thugs ("vigilantes") who would violently chase away migrants to California trying to escape the Dust Bowl, a man-made ecological catastrophe in the American Great Plains during the 1930s. One verse refers to the murder of Preacher (Jim) Casy, a central figure in John Steinbecks' 1939 novel ''The Grapes of Wrath''.<ref name=Weber>{{AllMusic |class=song |id=vigilante-man-mt0042969501 |label=Woody Guthrie: ''Vigilante Man'' |first=Barry |last=Weber |accessdate=September 30, 2016}}</ref>
The tune was taken from "Sad and Lonesome Day", a song made popular by The Carter Family, which itself borrows from "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" by Blind Lemon Jefferson.<ref name=Weber />
==Recordings== {{dynamic list|date=September 2016}} The song has been recorded several times, including: * 1940{{snd}}Woody Guthrie, on the album ''Dust Bowl Ballads'' * 1972{{snd}}Ry Cooder, on the album ''Into the Purple Valley'' * 1973{{snd}}Nazareth, on the album ''Razamanaz'' * 1988{{snd}}Bruce Springsteen, on the album ''Folkways: A Vision Shared'' * 1990{{snd}}Hindu Love Gods, on the album ''Hindu Love Gods'' * 2015 {{snd}}Adriano Viterbini, on the album ''Film O Sound''
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:1940 songs Category:Woody Guthrie songs Category:Ry Cooder songs Category:Nazareth (band) songs Category:Bruce Springsteen songs Category:Songs written by Woody Guthrie