Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.
After a bit of digging, I found this version of Woody Guthrie’s classic “This Land is Your Land” (written in 1940) as performed by Pete Seeger, with some help from Bruce Springsteen, among others.
Lyrics found here for all verses. Those which Seeger includes aren’t usually sung, deemed “radical” and “un-American” and “communist” at different times and by various people. For me at least, they resonate in this Occupied time.
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.
You can read more about this well known song with not so well known verses at NPR’s The Story Of Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land’. Or, see Folk Music.
In 1940, American folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie penned what has become one of the most memorable and timeless American folk songs in the history of the craft.
… Guthrie wrote the song in response to the hugely popular Irving Berlin song, ‘God Bless America.’ He was so tired of hearing the song on the radio and the blatant jingoism it promoted. Guthrie had seen much of America by this time, had experienced the Dust Bowl exodus of the 1930s and the racism and classism that followed emigrant workers and the blue collar working boys around, as they searched for work during the Great Depression.
With all of that in mind, Woody Guthrie wrote a new song of patriotism, with the refrain line, ‘God blessed America for me.’
The song includes rather poignant lyrics that were considered subversive in their time. Lyrics to the song tackle the definition of liberty, individual rights and property ownership.
“God blessed America for me” became “This land was made for you and me.” Just something to think about, these “subversive” lyrics, at a time when millions remain “disemployed” (Lambert Strether’s great term); foreclosures continue; food stamps are cut; the petroleum industry gets Keystone and more deep sea drilling; wars keep going; drones keep flying; health care remains more an “issue” and “product” than a human right; and Wall Street and the Electeds mostly continue on their course of choice.
Celebrating Independence Day is fine – picnics, fireworks and music. That’s all good. I just need to remember the real life “verses” for people who can very understandably ask: “Is this land for you and me?”
Treat this as an Open Thread, July 4 related or otherwise.
We have rights…..but only the ones we are willing to fight for.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said that politicans need to stop fighting and start working on the economy, which I don’t see happening anytime soon.
It’s probably not such a good idea for most people to come to grips with what this country was and is. It’s history is filled with strife and poverty and hunger and violence. I don’t know if it was ever as bad as eastern Europe today, where people are selling their body parts to put food on the table, but it would do young people today some good to take a good hard look at the place they call home. In previous comments, in my defense of unions, I have pondered why people have become so ignorant of how the middle class in this country came about. Many years ago, after making ” Rocky ” Sylvester Stallone made a bomb called ” Fist. ” It was a fictionalized version of the rise of Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters. It did one thing very well though; it showed the brutal war between workers and owners and the lengths the owners would go to keep the workers down. It painted a bleak picture of this country, and it’s all out there waiting to come back in.
Funny how standing up for the working people is always “unAmerican” or “communist” or “radical”, while committing organized violence for the opposite reason is somehow OK.
BTW,I saw some patriotism in action today.