This Land Is Your Land

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For other uses, see This Land (disambiguation).
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"This Land is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called "God Blessed America for Me"[1]. Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses than appear in recordings or publications.

Guthrie lifted the melody of "This Land Is Your Land" essentially note-for-note from "When the World's on Fire", a Baptist hymn recorded by country legends the Carter Family ten years earlier. However, some sources claim that a Carter Family original, "Little Darlin' Pal of Mine", was the source of the melody for "This Land". He wrote the song in 1940 and recorded it in 1944. The song was not published until 1951, when it was included in a mimeographed booklet of ten songs with typed lyrics and hand drawings. The booklet was sold for 25¢, and "Copyright 1945" was written on the cover.

The first known professionally printed publication was in 1956 by Ludlow Music (now a unit of The Richmond Organization), which administered the publishing rights to Guthrie's tune. Ludlow later issued versions with piano and guitar accompaniments.

In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

This land is your land, this land is my land
From the Redwood Forest to the New York Island
The Canadian mountain to the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me.
As I go walking this ribbon of highway
I see above me the endless skyway
And all around me the wind keeps saying:
This land is made for you and me.
I roam and I ramble and I follow my footsteps
Till I come to the sands of her mineral desert
The mist is lifting and the voice is saying:
This land is made for you and me.
Where the wind is blowing I go a strolling
The wheat field waving and the dust a rolling
The fog is lifting and the wind is saying:
This land is made for you and me.
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land is 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?
As I went walking, I saw a sign there;
And on the sign there, It said, 'NO TRESPASSING.'
But on the other side, It didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.

A printing of unknown origin dated omitted the last two verses. The 1945 pamphlet (along with many modern printings that continue to omit this verse) has caused some question as to whether the song, as first composed by Guthrie, did in fact contain these two verses. Although it is impossible to say for certain, as the original manuscript is lost, both the Woody Guthrie Foundation[2] and his son, Arlo Guthrie, maintain that the last two verses are authentich[ttp://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/this-land.shtml].

[edit] Modern usage

The song was brought back to life in the 1960s, when several artists of the new folk movement, including Bob Dylan and Peter Paul and Mary, recorded versions, inspired by its political message. Bruce Springsteen also released a live version of it on Live/1975-85, in which he called it "about one of the most beautiful songs ever written." Numerous records have been released since.

George H. W. Bush used "This Land" as a campaign song in his runs for the Presidency.

[edit] Variations

In Canada, the song is sung with the first verse altered to make Canadian geographical references. This version was written and popularized by Canadian folk music group The Travellers in 1955.[3]:

This land is your land, This land is my land,
From Bonavista, to Vancouver Island
From the Arctic Circle to the Great Lakes waters,
This land was made for you and me.

The Swedish musician Mikael Wiehe has written a text in Swedish , Det här är ditt land. The text is about Sweden.

The UK anarcho-punk band Zounds rewrote "This Land" for their 1981 debut LP, The Curse of Zounds, releasing a remixed CD single version as a fund-raising benefit in 2001 for the McLibel support campaign.

In Ireland and western Scotland, many sing the song with these lyrics:

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From the northern highlands to the western islands
From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walking by the Shannon water
Hand in hand with my little daughter
The church bells ringing, and the children singing
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
So I walked her home by the old church steeple
Proud of my country, proud of my people
Of the men who tried there, of the men who died there singing
This land is made for you and me
Chorus
Then I climbed a mountain, saw the crystal fountain
And heard a great roar from the rocky sea shore
Her eyes were gleaming, she cried oho Daddy
This land was made for you and me

[edit] Parodies

  • In 2004, the Web site JibJab featured a parody of the song, featuring John Kerry and George W. Bush singing altered lyrics[4], resulting in the Richmond Organization threatening legal action[5]. At this point, it was noticed that the copyright to the original 1945 publication had expired in 1973 and was not renewed as then required by copyright law.[6]

The Richmond Organization settled with Jibjab shortly thereafter. It still, however, claims copyright on other versions of the song, such as those appearing in the 1956 and later publications. Legally, such claims only apply to original elements of the song that were not in the public domain version.

This land is my land, and only my land
And I just take land if I can’t buy land
And if I spy land, well, then it’s my land.
This land was made for only me.
  • The song is parodied in an episode of The Simpsons with the words changed to "This log is my log, this log is your log" in reference to a runaway giant redwood tree.
  • It was also parodied in an episode of Friends when Joey meets a man he believes to be his "hand-twin", resulting in the lyric "This hand is my hand."
  • The Tim Robbins film Bob Roberts includes a song in which the title character sings "This land is my land/ This land is my land"
This land is your land, it once was my land,
Before I sold you Manhattan Island;
You banished my nation, to the reservation,
This land was stolen by you from me.
The site also lists an anarchist version:
This land is their land, it isn't our land,
From the Wall Street office, to the Cadillac car-land;
From the plush apartments, to the Hollywood starland,
This land is not for you and me.
If this is our land, You'd never know it,
So take your bullshit, and kindly stow it,
Let's get together, and overthrow it,
Then this land will be for you and me.
  • Jim Page's [9] "This Land" [10] has a different set of words and changes the verse structure slightly:
come gather round me, hear my sad story
I know you think you've heard some one sing it before me
but it's an old song, I had to change it
times ain't what they used to be
as I was walking that super highway
below the gray haze and sooted skyway
I was arrested for hitch hiking on the freeway
they said it don't belong to me

[edit] Media

[edit] External links


Patriotic music of the United States Flag of the United States

"America the Beautiful" • "Ballad of the Green Berets" • "Battle Cry of Freedom" • "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" • "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" • "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" • "For The Dear Old Flag, I Die" • "God Bless America" • "God Bless the USA" • "Hail, Columbia" • "Hail to the Chief" • "The Liberty Bell" • "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" • "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" • "Over There" • "PT-109" • "Stars and Stripes Forever" • "The Star-Spangled Banner" • "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving" • "This is My Country" • "This Land Is Your Land" • "Yankee Doodle" • "The Yankee Doodle Boy" • "You're a Grand Old Flag" • "Fifty Nifty United States" • "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

Armed services: "The Army Goes Rolling Along" • "Anchors Aweigh" • "The U.S. Air Force" • "Marines' hymn" • "Semper Paratus"
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