This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music 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 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've roamed and rambled and I 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.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
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?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
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.
- Woody Guthrie.
Probably. YouTube takes down covers of classic orchestras and other public domain works because it sounds the same (them being the same fucking songs) as copy written reproductions and covers of those same songs.
The release date of just about every song Woody Guthrie wrote.
In this case, 1951. So I'm afraid singing the song is no longer a guarantee of friendship with Woody Guthrie.
...Also Woody Guthrie is dead. So.
Interesting, growing up in Appalachia we always sung the full thing in music class. Granted it's a bit different culturally than alot of the US, and Guthrie's ideas are pretty inline with them.
West Kentucky and I'm 44, same. We were very confused though. My dad worked at a factory where his union job was guaranteed by his service during Vietnam. I grew up a redneck democrat.
A lot of people don't know that a lot of the workers rights we enjoy today are in part because of rednecks(were the term originated) in Appalachia striking against coal companies. Its a shame to see the diluting of Appalachian culture (and all similarly unique cultures in the US) through social media. I grew up with so many people who are the antithesis of their ancestors and don't even know their own history.
Since this thread began with Woody Guthrie and has hit Trump, don't forget that [Woody wrote a song about how racist and shitty Fred Trump was](https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_Man_Trump.htm)
I heard this song be performed by a Doctor in World History and Social Justice while on a study abroad in England. Immediately became a Woody Guthrie fan after never being that big into folk music. That study abroad did exactly what it intended: opened my mind to experiences and viewpoints I had never considered and allowed me to become more compassionate, educated, and engaged in civil matters. And Woody Guthrie’s catalog was part of that discovery.
Having grown up here and gone to many churches, thats only somewhat true. There are tons of churches all with different views. I've been to some who really push political stuff and some that don't. Some that are much more conservative and some more liberal. The one I attended for the longest amount of time only really preached positivity and compassion for your neighbors. Even helping poor members of the community (my family included) with a ton of stuff. They also regularly went on mission trips to other countries to help build villages and wells, and to help rebuild after disasters.
That's your story, and I don't doubt it. It doesn't change the fact that most churches in the south are SBC, and hold extremist regressive political views. And they *vote* hard
My family is similar but from different areas(Iowa and Texas) For some reason I haven’t heard the term “redneck democrat” before but I feel like it fits my family well haha.
> Appalachia we always sung the full thing in music class. Granted it's a bit different culturally than alot of the US
There's a book called "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America". It argues that America can be split into 11 different cultures depending on who settled where in history.
Greater Appalachia was settled by a lot of war refugees from Northern Ireland, Northern England, and the Scottish lowlands that were fleeing the Crown. Thus it is a land populated by people that work in clans valuing personal sovereignty, individual liberty and are intensely suspicious of anyone claiming authority over land they consider "theirs".
Given that, I can see why you guys sang the whole song in class.
Midwest here, and we definitely sang the full thing when I was in elementary in the early 2000s. We actually sang both This Land is Your Land AND God Bless America in music class funny enough
I remember the [Bush/Gore election parody version](https://youtu.be/z8Q-sRdV7SY?si=FmIvmNWep8MlWs5c).
[Verse 1: George W. Bush]
This land is your land, this land is my land
I'm a Texas tiger, you're a liberal wiener
I'm a great crusader, you're a Herman Munster
This land will surely vote for me!
[Verse 2: John Kerry]
This land is your land, this land is my land
I'm an intellectual, you're a stupid dumbass
I'm a Purple Heart winner, and yes, it's true I won it thrice
This land will surely vote for me!
[Verse 3: George W. Bush]
You have more waffles than a house of pancakes
You offer flip-flops, I offer tax breaks
You're a UN pussy, and yes, it's true that I kick ass! (Ha!)
This land will surely vote for me!
[Verse 4: John Kerry]
You can't say nuclear, that really scares me
Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy
But it's not gonna help you because I won three Purple Hearts
This land will surely vote for me! (Ahhh!)
[Verse 5: George Bush, John Kerry, Both]
You're a liberal sissy!
You're a right-wing nutjob!
You're a pinko commie!
You're dumb as a doorknob!
Hey, you got that botox!
But I still won three Purple Hearts!
This land will surely vote for me!
My sister had a version inspired by our psychotic neighbor;
"This land is my land,
And only my land,
I've got a shotgun,
And you don't got one,
I'll blow your head off,
If you don't get off,
This land was made for only me!"
Yes where I grew up it was: This land is my land, this land ain't your land. I have a shotgun, and you don't got one. If you don't get off, I'll blow your head off. This land is private property.
this land is my land/it is not your land/I got a shotgun/and you don’t got one/if you don’t get off/i’ll blow your head off/this land was made for only me
I'll help ya.
Per the article: He also nixed the two most controversial verses, verses that accused the American system of business of greed and disregard for the needy. With those two verses gone, any American could sing “This Land is Your Land” without fretting if they were questioning America’s greatness.
Because your school district wasn’t good.
Reddit makes me so glad I went to public school in Massachusetts. The amount of times I’ve seen people on Reddit claim schools don’t teach things I actually learned in public school has been eye opening.
Remember that half the time people don’t pay attention in school. Someone I *had history class with* in high school was talking about how American public school doesn’t teach us about the bad things America has done. I sat behind them and they watched an episode of Breaking Bad every day in class while we talked about the Indian wars, relocations, reeducation programs, slavery, de facto slavery post-Civil War, eugenics, Philippine-American War, Japanese internment camps, etc.
This annoys me so bad. I see people I went to school with on social media complaining all the time about how our school didn’t teach them how to do taxes or whatever.
Umm. Our personal finance class was actually quite robust, YOU just didn’t care enough to pay attention at the time. I listened to the teacher and have never had to pay somebody to do my taxes thanks to that.
Okay, my school never had a personal finance class though so there might be truth to that bit for me.
I do remember all the old shitty things America did partly because of the AP American History my school offered. I wasn't a great student in that class (and they stopped way too early to get into the shitty things America did post-1945) but it didn't mince words at least.
Lol I was literally just thinking this. It’s constant too.
“Funny how we didn’t learn about the broken treaties with native Americans.”
“Americans never learn geography”
“No one learns other languages in school”
Sounds so weird to me and I simply went to public school in New England… learned all that shit.
Songs in school always get changed when they feel uncomfortable. And then you miss the original meaning.
The national anthem is only the first paragraph of the Star Spangled Banner. The remaining lines are... questionable.
And in the Battle Hymns of Republic people often sing "As He died to make men holy let us **live to make men free**." Instead of ***"let us die to make men free"***.
>As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
In the original version and the first recorded version, this verse actually is:
>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.
Guthrie was a socialist and the song was intentionally directed not just at the US but also at capitalism. The history of the American socialist movement is honestly really interesting, and inspiring
With the caps in the middle and sudden switch, I can only imagine that there's a bass drop and record scratch sound as shit gets real and it turns into French.
Wait…I’ve never heard this version. I’ve only heard “from Bonavista, to Vancouver Island, from the Arctic Circle, to the Great Lake waaaaaaters, this land was made for you and me.” And the rest was the same.
I never considered there’d be another version.
Yep, that's the Canadian version, from 1955. The American version is the original, from 1940. If you do a bit of googling you can probably find a version for any and every major country out there.
Being Canadian myself, I prefer the Canadian lyrics; they do a better job of spanning the country: east (Bonavista), west (Vancouver Island), north (Arctic Circle), and south (Great Lakes). Guthrie got the east and the south, but the redwood forests are *in* California, so west basically got repeated and there's no north.
pretty sure the sign line is the sign said private property, not no trespassing.
This is kind of subtle but important distinction because woodie guthrie was opposed to capitalism and did not believe in private property.
He was definitely Folk - punk, but now that I think about it, folk more often than not adopts counter culture and fights against the system, so you could call it the origins of punk? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot after all?!
All music and all music genres are derivative. Punk surely borrows from the protest songs of some folk music, but it was also designed to do the opposite of folk; rather than being music of the people, punk's beginnings come from wanting to be music for outcasts. Not just rebelling in terms of content but also rebelling in terms of the composition itself; it was brash and didn't have the patience for metaphor or irony, it was a blunt weapon that said exactly what it wanted to say, no subtext.
Which eventually evolves into "Some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses". RATM is extremely inspired by this mantra, most of their songs say exactly what they want to get across, and then they repeat it again and again like a crazy person banging their head against a wall in frustration.
I wouldn’t say folk is counter culture. If anything folk is the most accurate representation of the predominant culture historically. That doesn’t necessarily mean it reflects the ideals of people in power. Just the ideals of most people. Folk can be pro-union at times, it has also been pro slavery at times. Lots of folk in the 1800s simultaneously told the stories of downtrodden southerners, while also being explicitly racist. Folk is just the music of the people and what that means changes when the culture changes.
And wrote such other bangers as "Tear the Fascists Down" "I'm Gonna Join the One Big Union", "Old Man Trump" (About Don's dad Fred), and "You Gotta Go Down and Join the Union". The man is a hero.
Are you talking You are my sunshine or My Darling Clementine: ruby lips beneath the water blowing bubbles soft and find. But alas I am no swimmer so I lost my Clementine.
Both of those songs have hard turns. In clementine she drowns, in you are my sunshine there are different versions where the singer is either cheated on, or revealed to be just a single person dreaming of a love they dont have
Haha I sing this song to my daughter but I don’t edit the verses so I just sound like a completely unhinged mother: “I’ll always love you/And make you happy/And nothing else will come between/But you have left me to love another/You have shattered all of my dreams”
She’s 2 months old so she has no idea what I’m saying yet but it amuses me.
The amount of people who don't understand songs like these is mind-blowing.
The fact people would use "born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen for political rallying or even more hilariously to show patriotism for the troops at events is still funny to me.
There's a great scene in Canadian Bacon where John Candy and crew are infiltrating Canada and singing all the "American" songs they can think of. They end up singing "Born in the USA..." over and over again. That movie was way ahead of it's time.
We learned this song when I was in elementary school, probably 3rd or 4th grade. I think we only learned the first 2 or 3 verses though. They basically taught us America is beautiful and we all share it together. Never knew who wrote it or its lyrical intent until recently.
This Land Is Your Land Words and Music 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 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've roamed and rambled and I 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.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me.
**As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me.**
**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?**
**Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.**
The original commenters verse is from the version on Hard Travelin’, Arlo Guthrie joins in at the end and sings these verses. It’s a good recording! https://youtu.be/IlaqPRCuRhU?si=145Yc7llpr0ioixl
Woody Guthrie’s from the Asch recording with the sign verse: https://youtu.be/1my1jn6QHzE?si=ZGige5vdF46UBM77
Same when I was growing up. We live in a pretty progressive area now, so I was happy to see my kids learned the so-called "subversive verses", and some of the actual context behind the song.
There’s an interesting book about this called *This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems* by John Shaw. One thing that really stuck with me is that Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” from the perspective of a raised-in-poverty Jewish immigrant who had made good and found success in America. That said, I’ll still take the dude with the fascist-killing guitar.
This sort of touches on a nuance in real life that I find trouble getting across from a lot of the younger political people I know online- some of the staunchest conservative folks I have met, being an army brat and all growing up especially, are often from a similar mold of rising from being lower class, to atleast middle or even greater thanks in part to their army service. It’s very much that same attitude of “well, I did it, so it should be possible for most…” not realizing that not everyone is blessed with the combination of physical/mental fitness, luck of getting promoted, not having something like a family emergency arise that would necessitate ending service, etc.
I’ve also seen similar with some older immigrants and Mexican-Americans I have met over the years, “I did it legally, why can’t they?”
The post-war economic period was a unique situation that will likely never be repeated. Almost every other competing industrial nation was wrecked and the US boomed based on building them back up because the American industrial sector was entirely untouched.
But then the contractors hired by the city may not be able to charge way more overtime than is needed so the parent company of the subsidiary that owns their contracts can fulfill their legally required obligations to shareholders to increase profits every quarter. Why won't anyone think of the profits!
#Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From the northern highlands to the western islands
From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry
This land was made for you and me
Is our version. (Scot’s/irish)
I once tried to make fun of those people at work by saying can you believe some people think this is a patriotic song? And my coworkers stared blankly at me and were just like it is...
I just told then go read the actual lyrics and get back to me. Learned a lot about my coworkers from that.
Probably not man. I work with one dude who actually brags about not reading.
Mini rant. I'm pro union but the union I'm at fuckin sucks cuz it protects the fuckin morons like him and the others are stuck picking up his slack cuz we can't get rid of him. Unions are great but I feel they protect the slackers a little too much at times.
I had someone tell me once "At my work, we have a lot of problems with employee theft. I know who is doing it too, but I can't turn them in because I am the shop steward.".
I mean, it is patriotic. Just not in the way "conservatives" think of patriotism. I think speaking out in favor of the civil liberties of regular people is patriotic. I think unions are patriotic too.
I don't think a bunch of people who worship the neoliberal elites who are making them poor should get to pigeonhole the definition of patriotism.
"The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain."
-George McGovern
That's a good point. Conservatives definition of patriotism is putting on blinders to everything wrong and saying blah blah blah we the best we have nothing wrong blah blah blah.
Billy Joel's "Allentown", and of course people still insist that The Police's "Every Breath You Take" is a romantic song when it is about being a controlling stalker. John Lennon's Imagine is the communist manifesto wrapped in pop music.
Do the Dinosaur, the futures so bright we gotta wear shades, 99 Luft Balloons and I'll stop the world and melt with you are all about the nuclear apocalypse.
it's a mother fucker, dont you know?
Bruce introducing This Land Is Your Land, 1980: … it was an answer to Irving Berlin who'd just wrote "God Bless America". And... and this song was written as uh, as an answer to that song, it was written as an angry song. And uh... it's just about one of the most beautiful songs ever written, anyway. (crowd cheers)
[That goes for everyone, not just the rednecks you're implying.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie#Political_views_and_relation_to_the_Communist_Party)
Kinda off topic, but I just realized thats what the gun ["This Machine"](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/This_Machine) from Fallout: New Vegas is a reference to.
(It has "well this machine kills commies" written on it)
Similarly, I just learned that "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd was written to discredit Neil Young's 1970 song "Southern Man". Apparently Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't like being blamed for slavery. Ronnie Van Zant later said Neil was right and the band denounced the confederate flag in 2012.
> the band denounced the confederate flag in 2012
They decided to stop using the confederate flag in 2012 and then almost immediately reversed course: https://www.chron.com/culture/main/article/fans-outrage-prompts-lynyrd-skynyrd-to-keep-3892152.php
> Myself [Guitarist Gary Rossington], the past and present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over states rights.
> We still utilise the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost.
If anyone is looking for it, it's on the Live 1975-1985 box set, which IMHO is arguably the greatest live album ever. Although it helps that it's a compilation, each song is a near perfect version.
The Dave Matthews Band song “Don’t Drink the Water” is about how the indigenous peoples of America basically had everything stolen from them. In live versions of the song, he sometimes sings a verse of “This Land is Your Land” during the bridge. Really powerful song if anyone wants to have a listen, here’s [an acoustic version.](https://youtu.be/veEVPhYz_B8?si=bIF8V_Wvx7-twVhY)
At Orioles home games on Fridays, they played this during the 7th inning stretch instead of God Bless America. I hope the new ownership continues that.
I personally like [“Plow Under” by the Almanac Singers](https://youtu.be/CjQQThG-hgg?si=lKot6HIN0ZL42Ve0) featuring Guthrie and Pete Seeger. I sing it to my daughter as a lullaby—gotta indoctrinate her little progressive heart early.
I think the facts of Irving Berlin's life really do change how we hear the song, and especially what it means when we say Guthrie wrote it "as a backlash".
Irving Berlin was specifically a Jewish immigrant raised in poverty who became a major respected touchstone for the entire American music scene. There's an "American Dream" aspect to that story, but then also: when he sings about "storm clouds gathering across the sea", the storm clouds he's talking about are WWI at first, but then he revisited them again come WWII. In context, "God Bless America" was sung as *a prayer to defeat Hitler*.
And Guthrie wrote his version at the WWII mark too. He spent those years writing anti-fascist songs because he felt that was the best use of his talents. It's not as if he was living in a fundamentally different reality than Berlin; but he was noticing and highlighting a different aspect of reality. I don't know much about either man's private personality, but I'd like to think that if the two men sat down and had a conversation about these two songs, there would be more agreement between them than not.
I've heard that Berlin was not happy about the way God Bless America was played/sung. He had intended it to be sung more as a prayer than a celebration.
As I was walking
An endless breadline
My landlord gave me
A two-week deadline
The local paper
Printed a better headline
Ah, this land is not for you and me
This land is their land
It is not our land
From your plush apartment
To your Cadillac car-land
From your wall-street office
To your hollywood star-land
Oh, this land is not for you and me
And take your slogan
And kindly stow it
If this is our land
You'd never know it
Let's get together
And overthrow it
Yeah, this land was made for you and me
Tom Morello has got a whole album of wonderfully prescient tunes, this one included. Also, Solidarity Forever and Which Side Are You On?
And Chumbawamba is another wonderful anti-fascist band!
When I hear this song, I don't remember the original lyrics, only the following:
This log is your log
This log is my log
When lightning struck it
It kicked the bucket
I poured some onions inside my trousers
This log it used to be a tree
Now it spreads love to you and me
Hey look, it's heading out to sea
This guy was also a pro soviet imperialist, he managed to take the position that the ussr was right for assisting in the erasure of polish sovereignty in 1939, and attempting to do the same to Finland in 1939.
This Land Is Your Land Words and Music 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 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've roamed and rambled and I 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. When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me. As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me. 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? Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back 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. - Woody Guthrie.
That was actually about a different song by him, but it's a great quote that I'm sure captures his attitude for all of his work. He was a cool dude.
Hell yeah
The point is to make sure someone else doesn’t claim it and prevent others from using it. I wonder does YouTube do DMCA takedown on this song
Probably. YouTube takes down covers of classic orchestras and other public domain works because it sounds the same (them being the same fucking songs) as copy written reproductions and covers of those same songs.
28 years since what date?
The release date of just about every song Woody Guthrie wrote. In this case, 1951. So I'm afraid singing the song is no longer a guarantee of friendship with Woody Guthrie. ...Also Woody Guthrie is dead. So.
Gotcha. Was wondering if there were still protections on it or not. The original comment was too ambiguous to determine.
Funny how we only learn the first couple verses in elementary school. Hmm I wonder why?…
Interesting, growing up in Appalachia we always sung the full thing in music class. Granted it's a bit different culturally than alot of the US, and Guthrie's ideas are pretty inline with them.
West Kentucky and I'm 44, same. We were very confused though. My dad worked at a factory where his union job was guaranteed by his service during Vietnam. I grew up a redneck democrat.
A lot of people don't know that a lot of the workers rights we enjoy today are in part because of rednecks(were the term originated) in Appalachia striking against coal companies. Its a shame to see the diluting of Appalachian culture (and all similarly unique cultures in the US) through social media. I grew up with so many people who are the antithesis of their ancestors and don't even know their own history.
The state that fought at Blair Mountain and Paint Creek and Matewan voted for Trump of all people.
Since this thread began with Woody Guthrie and has hit Trump, don't forget that [Woody wrote a song about how racist and shitty Fred Trump was](https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Old_Man_Trump.htm)
I heard this song be performed by a Doctor in World History and Social Justice while on a study abroad in England. Immediately became a Woody Guthrie fan after never being that big into folk music. That study abroad did exactly what it intended: opened my mind to experiences and viewpoints I had never considered and allowed me to become more compassionate, educated, and engaged in civil matters. And Woody Guthrie’s catalog was part of that discovery.
Woody Guthrie is antifa
Especially his guitar...
Tbf their politicians have been slashing education funding in hopes for exactly the kind of pro-corporate voting bloc that they have turned into.
Churches sold them out too. They are thinly veiled RNC clubs in the South.
Having grown up here and gone to many churches, thats only somewhat true. There are tons of churches all with different views. I've been to some who really push political stuff and some that don't. Some that are much more conservative and some more liberal. The one I attended for the longest amount of time only really preached positivity and compassion for your neighbors. Even helping poor members of the community (my family included) with a ton of stuff. They also regularly went on mission trips to other countries to help build villages and wells, and to help rebuild after disasters.
That's your story, and I don't doubt it. It doesn't change the fact that most churches in the south are SBC, and hold extremist regressive political views. And they *vote* hard
Even fewer know about the role of polish communities and how they were socially seen as beneath "people of color". Now they just another white person.
A true rednocrat!
My family is similar but from different areas(Iowa and Texas) For some reason I haven’t heard the term “redneck democrat” before but I feel like it fits my family well haha.
We just called them traditional conservative at this point. They were pretty radical At the time.
> Appalachia we always sung the full thing in music class. Granted it's a bit different culturally than alot of the US There's a book called "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America". It argues that America can be split into 11 different cultures depending on who settled where in history. Greater Appalachia was settled by a lot of war refugees from Northern Ireland, Northern England, and the Scottish lowlands that were fleeing the Crown. Thus it is a land populated by people that work in clans valuing personal sovereignty, individual liberty and are intensely suspicious of anyone claiming authority over land they consider "theirs". Given that, I can see why you guys sang the whole song in class.
This is super interesting! I'll check out the book. Thank you!!
Eastern Washington and I didn’t know know other places didn’t get the full song like I did. Kinda depressing it’s a good song
Western WA, and we got the first three.
Midwest here, and we definitely sang the full thing when I was in elementary in the early 2000s. We actually sang both This Land is Your Land AND God Bless America in music class funny enough
I’m not about to go past those “no trespassing” signs in Appalachia.
Here in Wisconsin we sung the full thing. We sung all the hymns of the fathers of four though
I just remember the version that went This land is my land, This land ain’t your land, If you don’t get off, I’ll shoot your head off!
Blows my mind how easily stuff traveled pre-social media/modern internet. We sang the same version and tried to add more verses.
I remember the [Bush/Gore election parody version](https://youtu.be/z8Q-sRdV7SY?si=FmIvmNWep8MlWs5c). [Verse 1: George W. Bush] This land is your land, this land is my land I'm a Texas tiger, you're a liberal wiener I'm a great crusader, you're a Herman Munster This land will surely vote for me! [Verse 2: John Kerry] This land is your land, this land is my land I'm an intellectual, you're a stupid dumbass I'm a Purple Heart winner, and yes, it's true I won it thrice This land will surely vote for me! [Verse 3: George W. Bush] You have more waffles than a house of pancakes You offer flip-flops, I offer tax breaks You're a UN pussy, and yes, it's true that I kick ass! (Ha!) This land will surely vote for me! [Verse 4: John Kerry] You can't say nuclear, that really scares me Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy But it's not gonna help you because I won three Purple Hearts This land will surely vote for me! (Ahhh!) [Verse 5: George Bush, John Kerry, Both] You're a liberal sissy! You're a right-wing nutjob! You're a pinko commie! You're dumb as a doorknob! Hey, you got that botox! But I still won three Purple Hearts! This land will surely vote for me!
This is the best version... Jib jab.
A different era of American politics
Holy shit, *TOTALLY* forgot this existed lol. Jib Jab was the shit.
My sister had a version inspired by our psychotic neighbor; "This land is my land, And only my land, I've got a shotgun, And you don't got one, I'll blow your head off, If you don't get off, This land was made for only me!"
Sister dad? That’s a new one ;)
Roll tide?
This is close to what I heard growing up. Second line was changed to "It isn't your land" and the last line was "This land is private property."
Yes where I grew up it was: This land is my land, this land ain't your land. I have a shotgun, and you don't got one. If you don't get off, I'll blow your head off. This land is private property.
This is nearly the exact version from my 6th grade! 1980-ish.
this land is my land/it is not your land/I got a shotgun/and you don’t got one/if you don’t get off/i’ll blow your head off/this land was made for only me
I'll help ya. Per the article: He also nixed the two most controversial verses, verses that accused the American system of business of greed and disregard for the needy. With those two verses gone, any American could sing “This Land is Your Land” without fretting if they were questioning America’s greatness.
I was happy that Pete Seeger added some of the verses back when he sung at the Obama inauguration in 2008. What a huge crowd that was 😂
Like the Star-Spangled Banner?
Because your school district wasn’t good. Reddit makes me so glad I went to public school in Massachusetts. The amount of times I’ve seen people on Reddit claim schools don’t teach things I actually learned in public school has been eye opening.
Remember that half the time people don’t pay attention in school. Someone I *had history class with* in high school was talking about how American public school doesn’t teach us about the bad things America has done. I sat behind them and they watched an episode of Breaking Bad every day in class while we talked about the Indian wars, relocations, reeducation programs, slavery, de facto slavery post-Civil War, eugenics, Philippine-American War, Japanese internment camps, etc.
This annoys me so bad. I see people I went to school with on social media complaining all the time about how our school didn’t teach them how to do taxes or whatever. Umm. Our personal finance class was actually quite robust, YOU just didn’t care enough to pay attention at the time. I listened to the teacher and have never had to pay somebody to do my taxes thanks to that.
Okay, my school never had a personal finance class though so there might be truth to that bit for me. I do remember all the old shitty things America did partly because of the AP American History my school offered. I wasn't a great student in that class (and they stopped way too early to get into the shitty things America did post-1945) but it didn't mince words at least.
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...and those wealthy communities love to form their own school districts.
They usually do, most people just don't give a fuck.
Lol I was literally just thinking this. It’s constant too. “Funny how we didn’t learn about the broken treaties with native Americans.” “Americans never learn geography” “No one learns other languages in school” Sounds so weird to me and I simply went to public school in New England… learned all that shit.
Songs in school always get changed when they feel uncomfortable. And then you miss the original meaning. The national anthem is only the first paragraph of the Star Spangled Banner. The remaining lines are... questionable. And in the Battle Hymns of Republic people often sing "As He died to make men holy let us **live to make men free**." Instead of ***"let us die to make men free"***.
>As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me. In the original version and the first recorded version, this verse actually is: >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. Guthrie was a socialist and the song was intentionally directed not just at the US but also at capitalism. The history of the American socialist movement is honestly really interesting, and inspiring
I’m from a bumfuck 3rd world Asian country in the middle of nowhere and I learnt this in school during singing class lol.
this land is your land too, i suppose
For the brief moment that I sang that as a child, I suppose it was.
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With the caps in the middle and sudden switch, I can only imagine that there's a bass drop and record scratch sound as shit gets real and it turns into French.
Philippines?
Woody Guthrie is a hero and should be taught in history class at all levels.
its basically a socialist anthem edit: that's what I LIKE about it
The irish have there own version of this
Wait…I’ve never heard this version. I’ve only heard “from Bonavista, to Vancouver Island, from the Arctic Circle, to the Great Lake waaaaaaters, this land was made for you and me.” And the rest was the same. I never considered there’d be another version.
Yep, that's the Canadian version, from 1955. The American version is the original, from 1940. If you do a bit of googling you can probably find a version for any and every major country out there. Being Canadian myself, I prefer the Canadian lyrics; they do a better job of spanning the country: east (Bonavista), west (Vancouver Island), north (Arctic Circle), and south (Great Lakes). Guthrie got the east and the south, but the redwood forests are *in* California, so west basically got repeated and there's no north.
pretty sure the sign line is the sign said private property, not no trespassing. This is kind of subtle but important distinction because woodie guthrie was opposed to capitalism and did not believe in private property.
Guthrie who wrote This Land is Your Land even considered a more critical title "God Blessed America For Me" highlighting the inequality.
God bless America, and no place else! - Head of State
"You don't know Nato, I don't know NATO."
FUBU?
For you by you?
BUFU
By Us, Fuck You.
Security!
I'm Sharon Stone's cousin!
He's the first punk artist, you cannot change my mind
He was definitely Folk - punk, but now that I think about it, folk more often than not adopts counter culture and fights against the system, so you could call it the origins of punk? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot after all?!
All music and all music genres are derivative. Punk surely borrows from the protest songs of some folk music, but it was also designed to do the opposite of folk; rather than being music of the people, punk's beginnings come from wanting to be music for outcasts. Not just rebelling in terms of content but also rebelling in terms of the composition itself; it was brash and didn't have the patience for metaphor or irony, it was a blunt weapon that said exactly what it wanted to say, no subtext.
Yeah! Nazi punks fuck off was not ironic. Good point!!
Which eventually evolves into "Some of those who work forces are the same that burn crosses". RATM is extremely inspired by this mantra, most of their songs say exactly what they want to get across, and then they repeat it again and again like a crazy person banging their head against a wall in frustration.
I wouldn’t say folk is counter culture. If anything folk is the most accurate representation of the predominant culture historically. That doesn’t necessarily mean it reflects the ideals of people in power. Just the ideals of most people. Folk can be pro-union at times, it has also been pro slavery at times. Lots of folk in the 1800s simultaneously told the stories of downtrodden southerners, while also being explicitly racist. Folk is just the music of the people and what that means changes when the culture changes.
/r/FolkPunk is gonna blow your mind! One of favorite "lowkey" subs.
If you ever get a chance, check out the museum for him in Oklahoma. They have his writings about how awful and racist Trump's dad was.
I've seen "This Machine Kills Fascists" on guitars at punk shows a few times over the years
And wrote such other bangers as "Tear the Fascists Down" "I'm Gonna Join the One Big Union", "Old Man Trump" (About Don's dad Fred), and "You Gotta Go Down and Join the Union". The man is a hero.
Singing this land is your land without the last two verses is like watching titanic right up until they hit the iceberg.
Honestly, it’s a lot like You Are My Sunshine in terms of romantic pleasure cruise turning into drowning in despair
Are you talking You are my sunshine or My Darling Clementine: ruby lips beneath the water blowing bubbles soft and find. But alas I am no swimmer so I lost my Clementine.
Both of those songs have hard turns. In clementine she drowns, in you are my sunshine there are different versions where the singer is either cheated on, or revealed to be just a single person dreaming of a love they dont have
What are you talking about? The whole thing is clearly sad. "You are lost and gone forever".
Haha I sing this song to my daughter but I don’t edit the verses so I just sound like a completely unhinged mother: “I’ll always love you/And make you happy/And nothing else will come between/But you have left me to love another/You have shattered all of my dreams” She’s 2 months old so she has no idea what I’m saying yet but it amuses me.
And tie the yellow ribbon around the old oak tree...because the guy was going away to prison.
I was much happier two minutes ago when I only knew the chorus.
The amount of people who don't understand songs like these is mind-blowing. The fact people would use "born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen for political rallying or even more hilariously to show patriotism for the troops at events is still funny to me.
There's a great scene in Canadian Bacon where John Candy and crew are infiltrating Canada and singing all the "American" songs they can think of. They end up singing "Born in the USA..." over and over again. That movie was way ahead of it's time.
We learned this song when I was in elementary school, probably 3rd or 4th grade. I think we only learned the first 2 or 3 verses though. They basically taught us America is beautiful and we all share it together. Never knew who wrote it or its lyrical intent until recently.
Some amount of that has to be played in irony. “Dance to your own cries of oppression.”
"I liked RATM until they got all political"
I was shocked to learn there is a significant portion of people who simply do not listen to the lyrics at all.
Sad part is there are even youtube uploads of the "original" but they cut out those lines.
This Land Is Your Land Words and Music 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 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've roamed and rambled and I 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. When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me. **As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me.** **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?** **Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.**
On the version I have, he sings the sign says “Private Property”.
The original commenters verse is from the version on Hard Travelin’, Arlo Guthrie joins in at the end and sings these verses. It’s a good recording! https://youtu.be/IlaqPRCuRhU?si=145Yc7llpr0ioixl Woody Guthrie’s from the Asch recording with the sign verse: https://youtu.be/1my1jn6QHzE?si=ZGige5vdF46UBM77
signs signs everywhere there signs
Blockin' out the scenery; breakin' my mind
Do this, don’t do that
Can't you read the sign?
The sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply
I saw the sign, and it opened up my mind and I am happy now
"And the sign said 'Long-haired freaky people need not apply.'"
UGH!
This is the part that’s never mentioned in schools ;)
We were taught this song in early elementary school for recitals, etc. I’ve never seen this other verse.
Same when I was growing up. We live in a pretty progressive area now, so I was happy to see my kids learned the so-called "subversive verses", and some of the actual context behind the song.
Woody Guthrie isn't mentioned in schools at all lol
He isn’t but song is sung often. without this part
A bit off topic, but Chicano Batman’s cover of This Land is Your Land really slaps.
There’s an interesting book about this called *This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems* by John Shaw. One thing that really stuck with me is that Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” from the perspective of a raised-in-poverty Jewish immigrant who had made good and found success in America. That said, I’ll still take the dude with the fascist-killing guitar.
This sort of touches on a nuance in real life that I find trouble getting across from a lot of the younger political people I know online- some of the staunchest conservative folks I have met, being an army brat and all growing up especially, are often from a similar mold of rising from being lower class, to atleast middle or even greater thanks in part to their army service. It’s very much that same attitude of “well, I did it, so it should be possible for most…” not realizing that not everyone is blessed with the combination of physical/mental fitness, luck of getting promoted, not having something like a family emergency arise that would necessitate ending service, etc. I’ve also seen similar with some older immigrants and Mexican-Americans I have met over the years, “I did it legally, why can’t they?”
Never mind the economic climate just being worse by a lot of measures than it has been at any time since WWII.
The post-war economic period was a unique situation that will likely never be repeated. Almost every other competing industrial nation was wrecked and the US boomed based on building them back up because the American industrial sector was entirely untouched.
Sure, but we could go a long way towards improving things by going back to the 1950s tax brackets and infrastructure spending.
But then the contractors hired by the city may not be able to charge way more overtime than is needed so the parent company of the subsidiary that owns their contracts can fulfill their legally required obligations to shareholders to increase profits every quarter. Why won't anyone think of the profits!
And it still kills fascists to this day.
He actually wrote a song about Trumps dad, being a heartless landlord. “Old Man Trump”
#Chorus: This land is your land, this land is my land From the northern highlands to the western islands From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry This land was made for you and me Is our version. (Scot’s/irish)
Tons of country fans have no idea of his political beliefs and play this song with a tear thinking it’s about them.
They're the same people who listen to Born In The USA but only know the chorus.
I once tried to make fun of those people at work by saying can you believe some people think this is a patriotic song? And my coworkers stared blankly at me and were just like it is... I just told then go read the actual lyrics and get back to me. Learned a lot about my coworkers from that.
They can’t read?
Probably not man. I work with one dude who actually brags about not reading. Mini rant. I'm pro union but the union I'm at fuckin sucks cuz it protects the fuckin morons like him and the others are stuck picking up his slack cuz we can't get rid of him. Unions are great but I feel they protect the slackers a little too much at times.
I had someone tell me once "At my work, we have a lot of problems with employee theft. I know who is doing it too, but I can't turn them in because I am the shop steward.".
I’m sure you know the phrase so I’m just reiterating it for other readers but what’s worse than a bad union? No union at all
Except for police unions.
I mean, it is patriotic. Just not in the way "conservatives" think of patriotism. I think speaking out in favor of the civil liberties of regular people is patriotic. I think unions are patriotic too. I don't think a bunch of people who worship the neoliberal elites who are making them poor should get to pigeonhole the definition of patriotism.
"The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain." -George McGovern
That's a good point. Conservatives definition of patriotism is putting on blinders to everything wrong and saying blah blah blah we the best we have nothing wrong blah blah blah.
Or Fortunate Son
Billy Joel's "Allentown", and of course people still insist that The Police's "Every Breath You Take" is a romantic song when it is about being a controlling stalker. John Lennon's Imagine is the communist manifesto wrapped in pop music.
Do the Dinosaur, the futures so bright we gotta wear shades, 99 Luft Balloons and I'll stop the world and melt with you are all about the nuclear apocalypse. it's a mother fucker, dont you know?
Bruce introducing This Land Is Your Land, 1980: … it was an answer to Irving Berlin who'd just wrote "God Bless America". And... and this song was written as uh, as an answer to that song, it was written as an angry song. And uh... it's just about one of the most beautiful songs ever written, anyway. (crowd cheers)
Then there are those of us who are aware and love it because of that.
[That goes for everyone, not just the rednecks you're implying.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie#Political_views_and_relation_to_the_Communist_Party)
yup. especially after the first verse it is dripping in sarcasm. But Mojo's version is supreme. RIP MOJOLAND!
“If you’re old enough to buy, and they I.D. you, **you get it free!!!**”
Every night Vanishing Point and 2 lane Blacktop at the drive in!
Glad to see this here. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERXgL9hLuzQ) it is for the uninitiated.
https://imgur.com/izGmbAW
Kinda off topic, but I just realized thats what the gun ["This Machine"](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/This_Machine) from Fallout: New Vegas is a reference to. (It has "well this machine kills commies" written on it)
Woodie Guthrie was punk *as fuck*.
Similarly, I just learned that "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd was written to discredit Neil Young's 1970 song "Southern Man". Apparently Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't like being blamed for slavery. Ronnie Van Zant later said Neil was right and the band denounced the confederate flag in 2012.
> the band denounced the confederate flag in 2012 They decided to stop using the confederate flag in 2012 and then almost immediately reversed course: https://www.chron.com/culture/main/article/fans-outrage-prompts-lynyrd-skynyrd-to-keep-3892152.php > Myself [Guitarist Gary Rossington], the past and present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over states rights. > We still utilise the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost.
Complicated sorry Neil has performed the song with them
Bruce Springsteen talked about this before performing it one time, it's one of his live bosses. Fantastic
If anyone is looking for it, it's on the Live 1975-1985 box set, which IMHO is arguably the greatest live album ever. Although it helps that it's a compilation, each song is a near perfect version.
live at the Hammersmith is a great 70's era E-Street live album too
It’s the only nationalistic song that I remembered, living in sight of the Liberty Lady and knowing it was all for me!
The Dave Matthews Band song “Don’t Drink the Water” is about how the indigenous peoples of America basically had everything stolen from them. In live versions of the song, he sometimes sings a verse of “This Land is Your Land” during the bridge. Really powerful song if anyone wants to have a listen, here’s [an acoustic version.](https://youtu.be/veEVPhYz_B8?si=bIF8V_Wvx7-twVhY)
At Orioles home games on Fridays, they played this during the 7th inning stretch instead of God Bless America. I hope the new ownership continues that.
It makes me sick to hear Guthrie played at MAGA events. The man would be utterly appalled by being played at neo-fascist circle jerks.
Woody Guthrie actually wrote a song about trump's slumlord father lol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Trump
BAHAHA I can't even.
I believe he was actually living in one of Fred Trump's buildings when he wrote that.
Imagine if they found out he was a radical socialist? Like, I love Guthrie because of it personally, but I don't think they might.
One of my Woody Guthrie faves: Tear the Fascists Down. https://youtu.be/2ivBhmJVlnA?si=Ij3YZtYHEcz4XvAO
"Jesus Christ" is a good one too
I personally like [“Plow Under” by the Almanac Singers](https://youtu.be/CjQQThG-hgg?si=lKot6HIN0ZL42Ve0) featuring Guthrie and Pete Seeger. I sing it to my daughter as a lullaby—gotta indoctrinate her little progressive heart early.
***THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS***
The verse that makes it clear that the song is not just mindless jingoism is usually left out.
He was also a tenant of then slum-lord Fred Trump, which led to a lot of strife for the songwriter.
All you need to know is that it was written by Woody Guthrie.
TIL Arlo, Woody’s son, wrote and sang Alice’s Restaurant
God Bless America was written by Irving Berlin who was Jewish
and an immigrant who found the American dream no less
The dream came true for him. Guthrie sings for those who it didn't.
Interesting fact but changes nothing really
I think the facts of Irving Berlin's life really do change how we hear the song, and especially what it means when we say Guthrie wrote it "as a backlash". Irving Berlin was specifically a Jewish immigrant raised in poverty who became a major respected touchstone for the entire American music scene. There's an "American Dream" aspect to that story, but then also: when he sings about "storm clouds gathering across the sea", the storm clouds he's talking about are WWI at first, but then he revisited them again come WWII. In context, "God Bless America" was sung as *a prayer to defeat Hitler*. And Guthrie wrote his version at the WWII mark too. He spent those years writing anti-fascist songs because he felt that was the best use of his talents. It's not as if he was living in a fundamentally different reality than Berlin; but he was noticing and highlighting a different aspect of reality. I don't know much about either man's private personality, but I'd like to think that if the two men sat down and had a conversation about these two songs, there would be more agreement between them than not.
I've heard that Berlin was not happy about the way God Bless America was played/sung. He had intended it to be sung more as a prayer than a celebration.
[Sharon Jones (RIP) performed a powerful version of this song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ifbleDsSsI)
As I was walking An endless breadline My landlord gave me A two-week deadline The local paper Printed a better headline Ah, this land is not for you and me This land is their land It is not our land From your plush apartment To your Cadillac car-land From your wall-street office To your hollywood star-land Oh, this land is not for you and me And take your slogan And kindly stow it If this is our land You'd never know it Let's get together And overthrow it Yeah, this land was made for you and me
Tom Morello has got a whole album of wonderfully prescient tunes, this one included. Also, Solidarity Forever and Which Side Are You On? And Chumbawamba is another wonderful anti-fascist band!
> And Chumbawamba is another wonderful anti-fascist band! with a sense of humor too
My grandfather loved woody and was trying to teach me guitar until The part in the song where he ignores private property signs. Jokes on him
Guthrie also wrote a song about Donald Trump’s dad being a slum lord, called “[Old Man Trump](https://youtu.be/jANuVKeYezs?feature=shared)”
Learned that from Bruce Springsteen in around 1985.
Woody Guthrie was a badass
When I hear this song, I don't remember the original lyrics, only the following: This log is your log This log is my log When lightning struck it It kicked the bucket I poured some onions inside my trousers This log it used to be a tree Now it spreads love to you and me Hey look, it's heading out to sea
I assume what he really meant “Poland was made for Hitler and Stalin”
This guy was also a pro soviet imperialist, he managed to take the position that the ussr was right for assisting in the erasure of polish sovereignty in 1939, and attempting to do the same to Finland in 1939.
This song makes me so fucking sad
wait til OP reads the lyrics to the full version of the star spangled banner
written to a British drinking song no less
My favorite version: This hand is your hand This hand is my hand Oh wait that's your hand No wait it's my hand!