I probably first heard, then sang, “This Land is Your Land” some 40 or more years ago as a schoolchild.
The lyrics of the song, written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 and presented to us as a celebration of America and all its wonders, seemed tailor-made for elementary school assemblies:
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
The version we sang was bucolic, inclusive, and uplifting:
As I was 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’ve roamed and rambled and I 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.When 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
The version we sang as kids was also incomplete, leaving out the verses of biting social commentary that Guthrie wrote in reaction to his Depression-era wanderings alongside Dust Bowl refugees and other road-weary travelers.
I’ve been thinking about and singing this song a lot more recently, in the band that I play with and in living room jam sessions with friends. We sing all the verses, especially the radical ones:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
The verses I sang as a kid are beautiful. The verses I sing now are powerful. The verses I sing now are challenging. The verses I sing now are inspiring.
The verses I sing now are right for these times.