He could learn it from them and then sing it better than his teachers. Three things happened to Woody. He learned a variety of folk song styles, from the Appalachians to the Ozarks. Second, he began to make up his own lyrics, improvising to make his message more appropriate to his location and audience. Finally, Woody realized that music has a profound impact on the way men think.
People concentrate on lyrics to a much greater degree than the words in speeches or books.
Woody had arrived in Hollywood in 1937 a displaced Okie, a vagrant, but he left three years later a radio personality. It was the heyday of the singing cowboy. Once he persuaded station KFVD to give him some air time, Guthrie fit in almost as easily as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Although Guthrie received no pay, he made the most of the opportunity to promote not only his singing talent and Will Rogers-like wit but also his liberal political views. Though Woody never enrolled as a member, the Communist Party became one of his biggest supporters, especially after the publication of John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath called attention to the same kind of injustices that Woody sang about on the radio.