Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen - This Land is Your Land

This Land is Your Land is Woody Guthrie's best known musical composition, a song combining imagery of the beauty of America with concerns about its barriers and its inequitable distribution of wealth. Its inspiration came from repeated airings of Irving Berlin's God Bless America - a huge radio hit in the 1930s - prompting Guthrie to pen an antidote to Berlin's blind optimism and patriotic largesse. Using the melody from an existing hymn, he wrote the song in 1940, however it didn't achieve public attention until prominent folk singers began playing it in the 1960s. Amongst those to have performed This Land is Your Land include Peter Paul and Mary, Arlo Guthrie, folk legend Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen (the latter of whom appear in this clip, taken from the We Are One concert prior to the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama).

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.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Woody Guthrie
• Pete Seeger
• Irving Berlin
• God Bless America
• Bruce Springsteen

[toftmf]

The many 1960's versions of this song seemed to have been "sanitized", not including all the verses heard here. I don't know if this was because Guthrie's manuscripts had not been published yet. I have only one version [besides Woody's] with all the verses from an '05 CD titled "Freedom: Special 20th Anniversary Collection" sung by various artists, including John McCutcheon, Willie Nelson & Tom Paxton, but I have read that Arlo Guthrie as well as Pete Seeger sing all of them as well.

[musicinhistory]

Yep, the more political verses with socialist overtones are often removed, which changes the whole complexion of the song. It's ironic that Woody Guthrie was responding to the nauseating patriotism of God Bless America but doctoring This Land probably turned it into something similar.

[lildoozcoop]

Its wonderful that this is one of the very few times two of the "socialist" verses have been included. And that too at the president's inaugural concert. Even Arlo rarely sang them. However even here some lines were watered down. The original lines are "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? "

[WardyLion]

Even though I am English I find this song both incredibly moving and incredibly powerful.

Wardy

[Ivanatis]

long love Pete Seeger

[jonny14u]

I love Pete

[wid85]

A great big wall there,

Said private property,

But on the other side,

It didn't say nothing;

That side was made for you and me.

[doyoureallythinkso]

@WardyLion same here. it's just lovely.

[rabthe45bravo]

As a foreign-born American who earned his US citizenship through military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, I find this song deeply touching. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that it moves me to tears. This land *was* made for you and me. Sometimes we're so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to be grateful for the simple things.

[Gunnabee]

Vale and with deep respect for the following sacred names not mentioned during this celebration of disremembering: American Horse (Sioux) Black Elk (Lakota) Big Bear (Cree) Bigfoot (Lakota) Abel Bosum (Cree) Joseph Brant (Mohawk) Cochise (Apache) Choncape Chou-man-i-case Corn Planter Crazy Horse/Tashunkewitko (Lakota) Dan George Dull Knife (Cheyenne) Eagle og Delight Frank Fools Crow Gall (Hunkpapa Sioux)

[ftjax]

Glenn Beck Is a mere freak of nature who'll be washed away by the tide from the oil spill which he endorses ....the big rich oil corporations such as BP....

[garak99]

Switching channels recently Glen Beck on FOX News had the gall to call this song a Socialist Song because of the Line about the No Trespassing Sign

[dddilly]

but on the other side it didnt say nothing.  that side was made for you and me

[egrupert]

sitting here, thinking about the oil disaster in the gulf......makes me cry....they took it.