… was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, on this date in 1912. We, of course, know him as Woody Guthrie.
This from David Hajdu in a review in The New Yorker in 2008 of a new biography of Guthrie:
…”This Land Is Your Land,” a song that most people likely think they know in full. The lyrics had been written in anger, as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” which Woody Guthrie deplored as treacle. In addition to the familiar stanzas (“As I went walking that ribbon of highway,” and so on), Guthrie had composed a couple of others, including this:
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
God Blessed America for me.
There’s an American Masters program on Guthrie currently in circulation on PBS.
I ain’t never got nowhere yet
But I got there by hard work
If I owned a baseball team and if I thought a patriotic song was necessary during the seventh inning stretch, “This Land Is Your Land” would be my choice.
Woody Guthrie died in 1967.
This land is your land and 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 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 rambled and followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
All around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
Sign was painted, it 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
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land and 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
From a 1944 Guthrie recording.
You’ll be glad to know that “This Land is Your Land” is sung during the Naturalization Proceedings for new citizens in New Mexico. I’ve attended two of them this year in Albuquerque for the League of Women Voters. (At the end of the receiving line, we hand the new citizen a voter registration form, and say to them, “today you can register to vote”. And we point them to the County Clerk’s table in the hall where workers can help them.)
In the ceremony, several women sing the Star Spangled Banner, and there is a taped song, “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood. The words for all three songs are in the program, but there is no author listed for the national anthem or Woody’s song. I’d like to change that, but I don’t know how to contact them.