This Land is Your Land
Words by Woody Guthrie
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 was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
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
I've roamed and rambled and I've 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
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 sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come 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
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said 'private property'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side 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
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.
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
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
Found online (thank you Matt): (http://www.jsfmusic.com/Uncle_Tom/Tom_Article2.html ) "This Land is Your Land" is, without a doubt, Woody's best known song. Some people even think it should be our national anthem. Did you know that it was written as a protest against Irving Berlin’s "God Bless America," a hit song of 1939?
God bless America, land thatI love —Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above...
With people out of work during the height of the Depression, Woody responded with:
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,
God blessed America for me.
Later the last line was changed to "This land was made for you and me," but obviously Woody felt that a lot of people had been dispossessed of their homes and farms and his lyrics clearly show this. Woody wrote many political articles, books, autobiographical sketches for radical newspapers and although he hated injustice, he was invariably optimistic about the future of the ordinary person.
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