If you were
to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you
could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my
land.”
The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 classic is common knowledge… as are the first couple of verses, especially:
This land is your land/This land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me
But it isn’t until you get to the later
verses -- the verses often omitted from official versions -- that you
start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody (1912-1967) had in mind:
As I was walkin’, I saw a sign there
And that sign said “No tresspassin’”
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me
In the squares of the city/In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me
Let’s not forget that Guthrie penned the song in response to Irving Berlin’s saccharine “God Bless America.”
Let’s also not forget the words he scrawled on his guitar:
“This machine kills fascists.”
Woody said: “This song is Copyrighted in
U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and
anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good
friends of ourn, ‘cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing
it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”
Guthrie laid the foundation for
generations of singer-songwriters to use their lyrics and voices to
challenge the benign platitudes of pop music and provide a Greek chorus
of protest and outrage to keep us all more honest and aware.
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