Original 1944 lyrics
“This land is your land,
this land is my land
This land was made for you
and me.
I saw above me that endless
skyway
I saw below me that golden
valley
This land was made for you
and me.
I roamed and I rambled and
I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of
her diamond deserts
While all around me a voice
was sounding
This land was made for you
and me.
When the sun came shining,
and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving
and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting, As
the fog was lifting,
This land was made for you
and me.
This land is your land,
this land is my land
From California to the New
York Island
From the Redwood Forest to
the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you
and me.
There was a big high wall
there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said
private property;
But on the back side it
didn't say nothing;
As I went walking I saw a
sign there
And on the sign it said
"No Trespassing."
But on the other side it
didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you
and me.
It also has a verse:
Nobody living can ever stop
me,
As I go walking that
freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make
me turn back
This land was made for you
and me.
In the squares of the city,
In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd
seen my people.
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you
and me?”
Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless
America. Woody Guthrie grew tired of
hearing Kate Smith sing it over the radio.
“This land is the result.
I can’t begin to list all the popular
singers who have covered the song on albums or in live performance. Along with Ochs’ “Power and Glory,” it ranks
as one of the most powerful anthems to the America that won WWII, the America
that welcomed Emma Lazarus’ New Colossus immigrants, the America that grew
strong by providing a free public education system to elevate the poor into the
middle class.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet
Arlo Guthrie and to hear him talk about his perceptions of his parents and
their political beliefs and goals. The
view of America offered by Woody Guthrie and his friends and family is my kind
of America. It is an America that cares
for its ill and injured, feeds and houses its poor, and it is an America in
which every citizen’s voice and vote are supposed to be heard.
Much the night I’ve sat around a
campfire talking to young Boy Scouts about “This Land.” All it took was a guitar and the willingness
to celebrate the words of a great American.
It’s much harder now, to get
scouts to sing. There interests and
their taste in music have changed markedly from mine all those decades
ago.
Arlo, back in the days of vinyl
records reminded us that we have to sing loudly to end the war (VietNam for you
younger folks). We’re at war today. We’re shooting people and being shot by
people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, on our own soil, and more likely than not, in
Syria and Iran. However, the bigger war,
the most important war, the war we absolutely have to win, is the war against the
Wall Street robbers who nearly destroyed the global economy with their greed in
1929, and who nearly did it again in 2008.
And if we don’t stop their depredations, if we don’t limit their ability
to steal from us all with computers and lies, they will find a way to destroy
all our savings, our schools, our access to health care, and our access to the
ballot box.
The greedy bastard in Congress and the
even more greedy bastards that buy them are singing too. They’re singing a different song, one with
twisted hateful words.
We need to
sing more loudly!
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