LyricMeaning

Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done
Woody Guthrie

(The Great Historical Bum)

I'm just a lonesome traveler, The Great Historical Bum.
Highly educated from history I have come.
I built the Rock of Ages, 'twas in the Year of One
And that was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I worked in the Garden of Eden, that was the year of two,
Joined the apple pickers union, I always paid my due;
I'm the man that signed the contract to raise the rising sun,
And that was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I was straw boss on the Pyramids, the Tower of Babel, too;
I opened up the ocean let the migrant children through,
I fought a million battles and I never lost a one,
And that was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I beat the daring Roman, I beat the daring Turk,
Defeated Nero's army with thirty minutes work,
I fought the greatest leaders and I licked them everyone
And that was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I stopped old Caesar's Romans, and I stopped the Kubla Khan;
I took but half an hour's work to beat the Pharaoh's bands;
I knocked old Kaiser Bill flat, then I dumped the bloody Huns,
And that's about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I was in the Revolution when we set the country free;
Me and a couple of Indians that dumped the Boston tea;
We won the battle at Valley Forge, the battle of Bully Run;
And that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Next, we won the slavery war, some other folks and me,
And every slave from sea to sea was all turned loose by me.
I divorced old Madam slavery, and I wed this freedom dame.
And that's about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

And then I took to farming on the great midwestern plain,
The dust it blowed a hundred years, but never come a rain'
Well, me and a million other fellas left there on the run
And that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I clumb the rocky canyon where the Columbia River rolls,
Seen the salmon leaping the rapids and the falls
The big Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington
Is just about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There's a building in New York that you call the Empire State
I rode the rods to 'Frisco to walk the Golden Gate
I've seen every foot of film that Hollywood has run
But Coulee is the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Three times the size of Boulder or the highest pyramid
Makes the Tower of Babel a plaything for a kid
From the rising of the river to the setting of the sun
The Coulee is the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There was a man across the ocean, I guess you knew him well,
His name was Adolf Hitler, goddam his soul to hell;
We kicked him in the panzers and put him on the run,
And that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I'm living with my freedom wife in this big land we built;
It takes all forty eight States for me to spread my quilt.
Our kids are several millions now; they run from sun to sun.
And that's about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I built mines and mills and factories to run for Uncle Sam;
I turned th' ploughs and wheels to feed my soldiers in your lands;
This Nazi job's a tough 'un, it'll take us everyone,
'Cause this is about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There's warehouse guys and teamsters and guys that skin the cats
Guys that run my steel mill, my furnace and my blast
We'll stop the Axis rattlesnakes and thieves of old Nippon
And that will be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I'd better quit my talking, 'cause I told you all I know,
But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go,
The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is done
That'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

I better quit my talking now; I told you all I know,
But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go,
I'm older than your old folks, and I'm younger than the young,
And I'm about the biggest thing that man has ever done.


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Lyrics by Woody Guthrie

  1913 Massacre   A Dollar Down   A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week   A Picture From Life's Other Side   Ach Hätte Ich Ein Bierchen (freie &uu...   Ach Hätte Ich Ein Bierchen (freie übersetzun...   Aginst Th' Law   Aginst Th' Law   Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way   Ain't Nobody's Business   Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way   Airline To Heaven   All Work Together   All You Fascists   Another Man's Done Gone   Another Man's Done Gone   At My Window Sad & Lonely   Bed On The Floor   Belle Starr   Better World A-comin'   Bile Them Cabbage Down   Billy The Kid   Birds & Ships   Black Wind Blowing   Blowin' Down This Road   Brown Eyes   Brown's Ferry Blues   Buffalo Skinners   Bury Me Beneath the Willow   Bury Me Beneath the Willow   Bury Me Beneath the Willow   Bury Me Beneath The Willow   Cadillac Eight   California Stars   Chisholm Trail   Christ For President   Clean-O   Cocaine Blues   Columbia River   Columbia's Waters   Columbia’s Waters   Columbus Stockade   Come See   Crawdad Song   Dance A Little Longer   Dance Around   Danville Girl, No. 2   Dear Mrs. Roosevelt   Deportee   Deportees   Dirty Overhauls   Do Re Mi   Don't You Push Me Down   Don't You Push Me Down   Dust Bowl Blues   Dust Bowl Refugee   Dust Cain't Kill Me   Dust Can't Kill Me   Dust Can't Kill Me   Dust Pneumonia Blues   Dust Storm Disaster   Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh...   Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good To Kno...   East Texas Red   Eisler On The Go   End Of My Line   Ezekiel Saw The Wheel   Farmer-Labor Train   Gambling Man   Get Along Little Doggies   God And Joseph   God's Promise   God's Promise   Goin' Down The Road   Going Down The Road   Going Down the Road (Feeling Bad)   Going Down The Road Feeling Bad   Gonna Roll The Union On   Goodbye Centralia   Goodnight Irene   Grand Coulee Dam   Grand Coulee Dam [*]   Greenback Dollar   Guitar Rag   Gypsy Davy   Hang Knot   Hangknot, Slipknot   Hanuka Bell   Hanuka Dance   Hanuka Gelt   Hanuka Tree   Hanuka's Flame   Happy Joyous Hanuka   Hard Ain't It Hard   Hard Ain't It Hard   Hard Ain’t It Hard   Hard Travelin'   Hard Travelin'   Hard, Ain't It Hard   Heaven   Hesitating Beauty   Hey Lolly Lolly   Hey, Lolly Lolly   Hobo's Lullaby   Hobo's Lullaby   Hoodoo Voodoo   Howdido   I Ain't Got No Home   I Ain't Got No Home (In This World Anymore)   I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore   I Ain't Got No Home   I Ain’t Got No Home   I Guess I Planted   I Just Want To Sing Your Name   I Ride An Old Paint   I Take My Penny   I've Got To Know   I've Got To Know   Ilsa Koch   Ingrid Bergman   It Takes A Married Man To Sing A Worried Song   Jackhammer Blues   Jackhammer John   Jarama   Jarama Valley   Jesse James   Jesse James And His Boys   Jesus Christ   Jesus Christ   Jig Along Home   Jiggy Jiggy Bum   Joe Dimaggio Done It Again   John Henry   Jolly Banker   Just The Facts Maam   Keep That Oil A-Rollin'   Keep That Oil A-Rollin'   Keep Your Skillet Good And Greasy   Kissin' On   Little Boxes Beatnik Version   Little Darling Pal Of Mine   Little Seed   Lonesome Day   Lonesome Valley   Los Angeles New Year's Flood   Los Angeles New Year’s Flood   Lost John   Ludlow Massacre   Ludlow Massacre   Mail Myself To You   Mean Talking Blues   Mermaid's Avenue   Mermaid's Avenue   Merry-go-round   More Pretty Girls Than One   My Daddy   My Daddy (flies A Ship In The Sky)   My Dolly   My Flying Saucer   My Peace   My Secret   Narrator [Speech]   New Found Land   New York Town   Nine Hundred Miles   Nine Hundred Miles (Instrumental)   Ninety Mile Wind   Oklahoma Hills   Old Judge Thayer   One By One   One Day Old   Oregon Trail   Pastures Of Plenty   Pastures of Plenty [*]   Peace Call   Philadelphia Lawyer   Pick It Up   Plane Wreck At Los Gatos   Poor Boy   Poor Lazarus   Post War Breakout   Pretty And Shiny-o   Pretty Boy Floyd   Put My Little Shoes Away   Put Your Finger In The Air   Race You Down The Mountain   Ramblin' Blues   Ramblin' Round   Ramblin' Round   Ranger's Command   Ranger's Command   Rangers Command   Reckless Talk   Red Wine   Remember The Mountain Bed   Riding In My Car (Car Song)   Roll On   Roll On Columbia   Roll, Columbia, Roll   Root Hog & Die   Root Hog And Die   Sacco's Letter To His Son   Sally, Don't You Grieve   Sally, Don't You Grieve   Secret Of The Sea   She Came Along To Me   Ship In The Sky   Sinking Of The Reuben James   Sinking Of The Rueben James   Sixteen Tons   Slipknot (Hangknot, Slipknot)   So Long -- It's Been Good To Know Yuh   So Long -- It's Been Good To Know Yuh   So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh   So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh (Dusty Old Dus...   So Long, It’s Been Good To Know Yuh   Song Of The Grand Coulee Dam   Sowing On The Mountain   Springfield Mountain   Stagolee   Stepstone   Stewball   Suassos Lane   Takin’ It Easy   Talkin' Hard Luck Blues   Talking Blues   Talking Columbia   Talking Dust Bowl   Talking Dust Bowl Blues   Talking Dust Bowl Blues (Alternate Take)   Talking Fishing Blues   Talking Hard Work   Talking Merchant Marine   Talking Merchant Marine (Talking Sailor)   Talking Sailor   Talking Subway   Talking Union   The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done (A.K.A. T...   The Dying Doctor   The Dying Miner   The Farmer-Labor Train   The Flood And The Storm   The Gambler   The Grand Coulee Dam   The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)   The Jolly Banker   The Ladies' Auxiliary   The Ladies' Auxiliary   The Many And The Few   The Midnight Special   The Ranger's Command   The Rising Sun Blues   The Sinking Of The Reuben James   The Unwelcome Guest   The Wreck Of The Old '97   They Laid Jesus Christ In His Grave   This Land Is Your Land   This Land is Your Land (Alternate Version)   This Land Is Your Land (Standard Version)   This Land Is Your Land [Folk Melody]   This Morning I Am Born Again   Tom Joad   Tom Joad (Part 1)   Tom Joad (Part 2)   Two Good Men   Union Burying Ground   Union Maid   Union Maid (Excerpt)   Vanzetti's Letter   Vanzetti's Rock   Vanzetti's Rock   VD City   Vigilante Man   Waiting At The Gate   Wake Up   Walt Whitman\u00c2\u00b4s Niece   Walt Whitman´s Niece   Washington Talkin' Blues   Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key   We Shall Be Free   We Welcome To Heaven   What Are We Waiting On?   When That Great Ship Went Down (The Great Ship)   When The Curfew Blows   When The Yanks Go Marching In   Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?   Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?   Why, Oh Why   Will Rogers Highway   Worried Man Blues   You Souls Of Boston

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