This Land Is Your Land -- Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie is one of my favourite folk singers. I found Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan. I recently listened to a Bob Dylan cover of this song. The song has an interesting history. Guthrie wrote it in 1940, recorded it in 1944, and published it in 1951. The melody is lifted from an earlier Carter Family recording of a Baptist Hymn.

In the spirit of "independence" and considering this is Independence Day for Americans, I figured that I would post these lyrics. They might send a shiver down the spine of some. Perhaps not like the Star Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful, or God Bless America, but all the same it is a great little song.

This Land Is Your Land

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
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
While All around me a voice was sounding
Saying this land was made for you and me.

The sun came shining, and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
As the fog was lifting, A voice was chanting,
This land was made for you and me.

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.

The song has included other verses at various points in time such as the following:

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?

And this one:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.