This Land is Your Land (idea)

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me

“This Land is Your Land” was originally written by Woody Guthrie on February 23, 1940 but, like most folk songs, has changed through the years. Guthrie later said that he wrote it because he was tired of hearing Kate Smith, a popular singer, sing “God Bless America” on the radio. In contrast to the unquestioning patriotism of Irving Berlin’s hit, Guthrie’s song, which he originally called “God Blessed America for Me,” actually presents a socialist critique of the country. The song has been reinterpreted through the years, and now has a sort of split personality as an inoffensive song of unity and an American socialist anthem.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me

The melody is based on that of the gospel song “When the World’s on Fire.” No recording of the song was issued until 1951, when it was the title song of a Folkways LP.

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
All around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Each verse as originally written ended with the title line, so it would have been sung like this:

The sun came shining and I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting and the fog was lifting
God blessed America for me

The original manuscript includes two more verses, for a total of six. Until recently it was thought that Guthrie had never recorded either of these, but an April 1944 recording that includes the first of the two was found in the Folkways archives. This verse is also sometimes included by Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other folk musicians, and it makes the socialist message of the song more explicit. As written by Guthrie in 1940:

Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property.
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing—
God blessed America for me.

No recording is known of Guthrie singing the final verse, and it is more tied both to the Great Depression and to the original title of the song, but it also emphasizes Guthrie’s original message.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people—
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.

In part because Guthrie left these politically polarizing verses out of his recordings, “This Land is Your Land” has become one of the best known and most popular American folk songs and has even been put forward as a candidate for national anthem. Any song this widely known has spawned an array of parodies, and in this case they range from the grade school favorite with the memorable line “I got a shotgun and you don’t got one” to a recent Flash animation which features George W. Bush and John Kerry trading insults.

This animation, by JibJab and available at their website, is particularly interesting because the song’s publisher, The Richmond Organization, has claimed that it damages the song’s apolitical, unifying reputation. The odd thing about this is, of course, that this reputation was not Guthrie’s intention; when he taught it to his son Arlo he emphasized it over his other songs because he thought it was too leftist for the rest of America to remember in the decades to come.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Guthrie wrote one additional verse with more of a libertarian flavor for the 1945 songbook Ten of Woody Guthrie’s Songs: Book One, which sold for a quarter. Arlo claimed when I saw him live that Woody had taught him this verse, which is intriguing because as far as we know he never recorded it.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

One more thing: The Smithsonian Folkways CD This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recording Vol. 1, the first in a series of four CDs of Guthrie recordings engineered and mastered by Moses Asch, includes three recording of this song, including the one with the fifth verse, and is a great introduction to Guthrie’s music. Here’s a full track listing:

1. The Land is Your Land
2. Car Song
3. Ramblin’ Round
4. Talking Fishing Blues
5. Philadelphia Lawyer
6. Lindbergh
7. Hobo’s Lullaby
8. Pastures of Plenty
9. Grand Coulee Dam
10. End of the Line
11. New York Town
12. Gypsy Davy
13. Jesus Christ
14. This Land is Your Land
15. Do-Re-Mi
16. Jarama Valley
17. The Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done
18. Picture from Life’s Other Side
19. Jesse James
20. Talking Hard Work
21. When That Great Ship Went Down
22. Hard, Ain’t It Hard
23. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad
24. I Ain’t Got Nobody
25. Sinking of the Reuben James
26. Why, Oh Why?
27. This Land is Your Land