Woodie Guthrie - Know Your History

Following the post 'July the Fourth' here this short post from Mickey Z here is relevant:  

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.