This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie's Forgotten
Lyrics
Every
American of recent memory has at one time or another sung the song, This
Land is Your Land.It is
now ingrained in our psyche and folklore as true Americana.However the lyrics and music which
were written by arguably the most eloquent folk singer of the twentieth century
have since been manipulated and altered to quiet its message of protest.
Guthrie
roamed the U.S. during one of the most troubled periods of America’s past,
during the great depression. In fact Guthrie became known as the “Dust Bowl
Troubadour.”He was no stranger to
poverty, having experienced it in the Oklahoma of his youth.
In
all of Guthrie's songs his spirit cries out for social and economic justice, and
his songs have since become the stuff of legend. This is what he said about the music he played:
"A man sings about the little things that help him
or hurt his people and he sings of what has got to be done to fix this world
like it ought to be." [1]
"I have walked and listened to these songs in the
Tennessee Valley and heard versions on top of Pike's Peak and along the
Columbia River, but I did not hear any of them on the radio. I did not
hear any of them in the movie house. I did not hear a single ounce of
our history being sung on the juke box. The Big boys don't want to hear
our history of blood, sweat, work and tears, of slums, bad housing, diseases,
big blisters... nor about our fight to have unions and free speech and a
family of nations. But the people want to hear about all those things in
every possible way. The playboys and the playgals don't work to make our
history plain to us nor to point out to us which road to travel next.
They... hide our history from us and point to every earthly stumbling
block." [2]
During his career he played with other legends
like the Blues great Leadbelly, and was a mentor to Bob Dylan and Pete
Seeger.
Here
are the unabridged lyrics to This Land is Your Land, which
Guthrie penned in protest to the lyrics of God Bless
America…
This
land is your land, this land is my land
From
California to the New York Island,
From
the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
This
land was made for you and me.
As I
went walking that ribbon of highway
And
saw above me that endless skyway,
And
saw below me the golden valley, I said:
This
land was made for you and me.
I
roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
To
the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
And
all around me, a voice was sounding:
This
land was made for you and me.
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—
That
side was made for you and me.
When
the sun come shining, then I was strolling
In
wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
The
voice was chanting as the fog was lifting;
This
land was made for you and me.
One
bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
