"This Land Is Your Land" (1944) - the Legendary American Folk Song by Woody Guthrie

[DonRocks]

I was reading about "This Land Is Your Land," and didn't realize that Woody Guthrie had sarcastically written it in 1940 because he was tired of hearing Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" - instead of the lyrics, "This land was made for you and me," the article implies that the lyrics were originally, "God blessed America for me" (which has the same number of syllables and the same cadence).

I suspect that many of today's younger Americans are more familiar with the terrifically wonderful parody, "This Land," released in 2004 by the company, Jib-Jab. Read on after the video for some surprising detail about the "real" song by Guthrie; in the meantime, take a stroll down memory lane and enjoy this fantastic piece of work:

Now that you've been grinning from ear-to-ear, let me tell you something interesting about Guthrie's song: There is a fascinating and controversial stanza in the original, 1940 version, which Guthrie sings below:

Was a 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.

[This land was made for you and me.]

And the final stanza of the 1940 version which changes the song's entire fabric - this is a shocking and sobering set of words, which is not included in the 1944 version. The true, original meaning of this song was most certainly not unbridled, rah-rah patriotism - I've never heard Guthrie actually sing the version which included these lyrics:

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.

[This land was made for you and me.]

This is Guthrie singing his 1944 version:

 

[MC Horoscope]

He "borrowed" his melody from a tune originally done by The Carter Family, When the World's on Fire No matter, the gentleman of the group, A.P. Carter, had for years gone door to door in Appalachia looking for songs and tunes for his group to learn and perform. I do not know if he bought them or "borrowed" them himself. The Carter Family were one of the most popular groups of the 1930s. More on The Carter Family here, including a tidbit about how they were going to be featured in a Life Magazine story that never appeared due to the attack on Pearl Harbor! Stole their thunder, to say the least, and country music was never the same!

Woody Guthrie liked to take the pious songs of The Carter Family and turn them into something more like social commentary. The Carter Family sang a lot of religious songs hoping for a better world in the next life, but WG was AGAINST songs like that because they were too passive, not working hard enough to improve life now. Not sure where I got that nugget, probably the WG biography by Joe Klein or maybe even Guthrie's own book Bound for Glory, which is not an easy read I have to say.

Arlo Guthrie definitely makes it a point to sing these forgotten verses posted above.

[smithhemb]

Kathy Jakobsen did a nice picture book of “This Land is Your Land” that includes all the lyrics — and (AFAICT) it has stayed in print for the past 20 years.  That was how my kid learned the song — not sure she was ever taught the edited version (or ”God Bless America!” for that matter) in school.