The Taming of "This Land Is Your Land"
The True Story of Woody Guthrie’s Most Famous Song
Oct 22, 2009
“The Land is Your Land” is one of America’s most famous folk songs, and certainly Woody Guthrie’s most famous work. But the song that most of us know is not the song that Guthrie intended it to be. Over time, two stanzas critical of Capitalism were left out of the song, effectively taking away its meaning.
In 2009, those two stanzas were reintroduced to the world when Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger performed it at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.
Woody Guthrie In New York
It would be during his first stay in New York that he would compose “This Land Is Your Land.“ In 1940, After living in California for a while and having (then losing) a radio show on Los Angeles station KFVD, Woody Guthrie accepted an invite from actor-activist Will Greer and moved to New York City.
In New York, he moved in musical circles that included musicians such as Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Josh White, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee. Guthrie was held in reverence as an authentic hard traveled singer who lived the songs that he sang, similar to the way enthusiasts were attracted to Lead Belly and Josh White.
He also had his political beliefs in line with these other folk singers. Woody became an occasional member of Pete Seeger’s highly political folk group, The Almanac Singers, destined to become one of the most influential groups in Folk Music.
This Land Is Your Land Inspired By . . . Irving Berlin?
As mentioned above, “This Land Is Your Land” was written while Guthrie was living in New York. Yet it was inspired by his loathing of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Guthrie was sick of hearing Kate Smith belt out Berlin’s song, and ever sicker of the blatant jingoism it encouraged.
To counter “God Bless America,” Guthrie penned a song using the tune to an old Hymn titled “Oh, My Loving Brother.” Guthrie titled his song “God Blessed America For Me,” with a refrain of the same name. He eventually changed the refrain to “This land was made for you and me.”
Guthrie signed his newly penned song with the statement “All you can write is what you see, Woody G., N.Y., N.Y., N.Y.”. This appears to be a dig at Berlin, implying that Guthrie is more suited to write about America because of his traveling and connection with the people. According to Christine Spivy “Guthrie intended the song to reclaim America for the common worker.” In this, Guthrie succeeded, not seeing the sonic butchery that was to come.
Woody Guthrie’s Subversive Verses
When Pete Seeger sang “This Land Is Your Land” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, he insisted on including missing stanzas that very few people knew. The first went
“There was a big high wall there - that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted - it said private property;
But on the other side - it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me."
There are two other verses that have fallen out of usage. One is a generally inoffensive stanza where he says “Nobody living can ever stop me/ as I go walking that freedom highway/ Nobody living, can make me turn back . . .”
The other one, however, is as the website Xroads says, turns “the celebratory anthem into an ironic attack on mainstream American Capitalist society.” The inflammatory stanza goes as follows (although there are variations):
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?
The Revival and Homogenation of “This Land Is Your Land.”
When “This Land Is Your Land” was revived in the mid-50s, when a few New York City music teachers dared to play it, the more Leftist lyrics were omitted, lest raising the ire of the Red Scare. By doing so, they inadvertently took away the ironic bite intended by Guthrie in the original. Children-- and later, folksingers-- learned the song without knowing the missing lines, and missed the true meaning of the song. Without the subversion, it became little more than “God Bless America” sans God.
As Spivey eloquently says, "The omission of two verses from the popular version of the song demonstrates how the folk song has been passed down through the Cold War generations. Generations change the song to fit their worldview. In the Cold War worldview, socialism necessarily gives way to nationalistic pride."
Woody Guthrie tried to show the real beauty of America-- warts and all-- the America that belonged to the working people-- the "you and me" in "this land was made for you and me.". When Pete Seeger included the forgotten lyrics in his version for Obama, he returned the dignity to a growling Doberman of a song neutered for all these years.
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