"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called "God Blessed America for Me".[1] Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses than appear in recordings or publications.
Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 and recorded it in 1944. The song was not published until 1951, when it was included in a mimeographed booklet of ten songs with typed lyrics and hand drawings. The booklet was sold for twenty-five cents, and copyrighted in 1945.
The first known professionally printed publication was in 1956 by Ludlow Music (now a unit of The Richmond Organization), which administered the publishing rights to Guthrie's tune. Ludlow later issued versions with piano and guitar accompaniments.
In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.[2]
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Guthrie's melody was very similar to the melody of "Oh, My Loving Brother", a Baptist gospel hymn that had been recorded by the Carter Family as "When the World's On Fire"[3] and had inspired their "Little Darlin', Pal of Mine."[4][5] (He used the same melody for the chorus and the verses.)
Guthrie's song, however, had a different melodic structure from the hymn or the similar Carter family melodies, and he used only the first half of those melodies in his song. The melodic structure of the presumed model(s) can be described as "ABCD" -- a new melodic phrase for each of its four lines. Guthrie's structure, however, is "ABAC." In other words, Guthrie repeats the beginning of the melody (the "A" section) for his 3rd line. And then for his 4th line ("This land was made for you and me" in the chorus), Guthrie used a melody that is not found in the hymn or in either Carter family melody.
A March 1944 recording in the possession of the Smithsonian, the earliest known recording of the song, has the "private property" verse included. This version was recorded the same day as 75 other songs. This was confirmed by several archivists for Smithsonian interviewed as part of the History Channel program Save Our History - Save our Sounds. The 1944 recording with this fourth verse can be found on Woody Guthrie: This Land is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Volume 1, where it is track 14.
Woody Guthrie has a variant:
It also has a verse:
A 1945 pamphlet which omitted the last two verses has caused some question as to whether the original song did in fact contain the full text. The original manuscript confirms both of these verses.[7]
Like a great many folk songs, the lyrics were sung with different words at various times although the motives for this particular change of lyrics may involve the possible political interpretations of the verses. Recordings of Guthrie have him singing the verses with different words.[8][9]
The song was brought back to life in the 1960s, when several artists of the new folk movement, including Bob Dylan, The Kingston Trio, and The New Christy Minstrels all recorded versions, inspired by its political message. Peter Paul and Mary recorded the song in 1962 for their Movin' album. The Seekers recorded the song for their 1965 album, A World of Our Own. Bruce Springsteen released a live version of it on Live/1975-85, in which he called it "about one of the most beautiful songs ever written."[10] Numerous records have been released since. Dave Matthews has periodically sung the song's first verse as an outro while performing "Don't Drink The Water". In 2007, Counting Crows released an acoustic version as a bonus track on August and Everything After. The funk/soul group Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings included their rendition on the 2005 record Naturally. Bruce Springsteen once again brought back the song in 2008 as set closer when performing acoustic concerts in support of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, this time adding a "Yes We Can" chant before and after the song.
The song was sung by Springsteen and Pete Seeger, accompanied by Seeger's grandson, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, at We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2009. The song was restored to the original lyrics (including the 'There was a big high wall there' and 'Nobody living can ever stop me' verses) for this performance (as per Pete Seeger's request) with the exception of a change in the end of the 'Relief Office' verse to "As they stood hungry, I stood there whistling, This land was made for you and me."[11]
The song is used during the introduction to the 2009 film Up in the Air (film), in a version sung by Sharon Jones (singer).[12][13].
As is the case with many well-known songs, it has been the subject of an enormous number of variations and parodies. They include:
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This was followed by a voiceover advertising the islands.
All of which are islands in The Bahamas
The song has been sung by characters in many films, including Bob Roberts (1992), Stepmom (1998), The Luck of the Irish (2001 Film) a Disney Channel movie and Up in the Air.
It has been parodied many times, including:
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Land Is Your Land by |
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the
United States' most famous folk songs, written by Woody
Guthrie in 1940. It was originally written in response to Irving
Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie considered that song
unrealistic and complacent, and was tired of hearing Kate Smith
sing it on the radio, so he wrote a different song, originally
called "God Blessed America for Me." Guthrie varied the lyrics over
time, sometimes including more overtly political verses that often
do not appear in recordings or publications.
The publication "10 of the Woody Guthrie songs" was submitted as evidence in the court case JibJab v Ludlow to prove this song was in the Public domain.[1] |
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 —
This land 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
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was made for you and me
"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."
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This work is in the public domain in the
United States because it was legally
published within the United States (or the United Nations
Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States
Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not
renewed.
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