This Land Is Your Land

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"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs, written by Woody Guthrie in 1940. It was originally written in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie considered that song unrealistic and complacent, and was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, so he wrote a different song, originally called "God Blessed America for Me." Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses that often do not appear in recordings or publications.

Guthrie lifted the melody of This Land Is Your Land essentially note-for-note from "When the World's on Fire," a Baptist hymn recorded by country/bluegrass legends the Carter Family ten years earlier. However, some sources claim that a Carter Family original, "Little Darlin' Pal of Mine", was the source of the melody for "This Land." He first recorded the song in 1944, and first published it in 1945, in a mimeographed booklet of ten songs that contains typed lyrics and hand drawings. The booklet was sold for 25¢, and "Copyright 1945" was written on the cover.

The first known professionally printed publication was in 1956 by Ludlow Music (now a unit of The Richmond Organization), which administered the publishing rights to Guthrie's tune. Ludlow later issued versions with piano and guitar accompaniments. A version with the more political "no trespassing" and "relief office" verses was published in 1972.

In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Contents

1 Modern usage
2 Current Lyrics

2.1 Lyrics from 1945 version
2.2 Original Lyrics

3 External links
4 Variations
5 Parodies

Modern usage

In 1986, Bruce Springsteen released a live cover of the song on his box set Live/1975-85. He had been playing the song, prefacing it with the story of its origin, throughout his Born in the U.S.A. Tour. He said that he covered the song because people had been frightened by the Watergate scandal and that he wanted to remind them that America belonged to everyone who lived there.

George H. W. Bush used This Land as a campaign song in his runs for the Presidency.

In 2004, the Web site JibJab featured a parody of the song, featuring John Kerry and George W. Bush singing altered lyrics[link], resulting in the Richmond Organization threatening legal action[link]. At this point, it was noticed that the copyright to the original 1945 publication had expired in 1973 and was not renewed as then required by copyright law.[link] The Richmond Organization settled with Jibjab shortly thereafter. It still, however, claims copyright on other versions of the song, such as those appearing in the 1956 and later publications. Legally, such claims only apply to original elements of the song that were not in the public domain version.

In the Disney Channel Original Movie, "The Luck of the Irish", the main characters are shown singing this song in the final scene of the movie.

Current Lyrics

In modern times, the first verse is often sung as below:

''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.

Lyrics from 1945 version

Below are the lyrics of the song as given in the 1945 booklet. These are somewhat different from the lyrics in later published editions.

''This land is your land, this land is my land

''From the Redwood Forest to the New York Island

''The Canadian mountain to the Gulf Stream waters