This Land Is Your Land
Woody Guthrie in March 1943
Sheet music “This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940, based on an existing melody, a Carter Family tune called “When the World’s on Fire”, in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song “God Blessed America for Me” before renaming it “This Land Is Your Land.” In 2002, “This Land Is Your Land” was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. Melody Guthrie’s melody was very si… Continue Reading (14 minute read)
> 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?
Aren’t almost all songs patriots use to “USA, USA, USA” to actually songs that critize the US? Like how heavily they use Born in the USA while it actually critizes the country.
“This Land” was one of the first songs I remember learning– I went to a Montessori preschool in the Bay Area. I remember loving it because of the “redwood forests” part– hey, it’s a song about our local trees! It was only years later that I understood that there was a deeper meaning. 30 years on I can still sing it and the parody from my elementary school– “this land is private property”.
He also wrote “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” famously covered by The Dropkick Murphys
Isn’t that extremely obvious?
The sticker on his guitar says “This machine kills fascists.” Guthrie is an American hero.
He also wrote a song about Andy Bernard’s family silencing Whistleblowers. “Oh Mr. Bernard, oh Mr, Bernard, who have you silenced today”
My favorite addition was a verse that he wrote later from the perspective of native Americans:
This land is your land,
But it once was my land,
Until we sold you,
New York island.
You pushed our nations,
On reservations,
This land was stole by you from me.
there’s a lost verse that isn’t in most recordings that I love,
> 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.