An in-depth look at the life and art of Woody Guthrie, the journey of his most famous song, and the weight it continues to carry.
“This Land Is Your Land” – Woody Guthrie
There are few among us who are unfamiliar with Woody Guthrie’s American folk classic “This Land is Your Land.”
Burgeoning young Americans grew up committing the lyrics to memory, singing loud and proud in patriotic concerts and pageants. The song is often performed at inaugurations and political events, at celebrations of American independence, during sports games and parades and barbeques – any time that calls for an emergency infusion of patriotism. Guthrie’s folk tune has woven its way into the close-knit fibers of American culture, forever indicative of pride for this country. Few songs, save the National Anthem and “God Bless America” (more on that later), are more synonymous with the United States than “This Land Is Your Land.” However, this was not at all what Woody Guthrie had intended. To understand the true meaning of the song, we must first look back at the life of its creator.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (whose namesake was, of course, the 28th president) was born into a middle class family in 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. When his mother died of Huntington’s disease and the reign of terror that was the Dust Bowl descended upon the Midwest, Guthrie did what so many others have done when in need of a fresh start: he grabbed his guitar and headed for California. As the Great Depression continued its devastation, Woody rambled and sang his way out West. He was watching and learning as he went, absorbing everything around him and transmuting it into music; songs that, for the time being, existed only within the confines of his mind and notebook.
Soon after his arrival in Los Angeles, it was clear he had chosen the right city. He met many like-minded individuals; progressive artists, musicians, and writers, including but not limited to John Steinbeck, Theodore Dreiser and Will Geer. Slowly, he began to share his music – and his thoughts – with the world. Guthrie wrote left-leaning columns and hosted radio stations, embedding himself in the radical culture the city had to offer. Here is where his ties to socialist and/or Communist groups begin, but whether he was a card-carrying member of the CPUSA is unclear, and often doubted – he was thought to exist on the fringes of organization, supporting socialist movements but uninvolved in any official capacity. Throughout his travels, he had seen the suffering and inequality that ran rampant throughout the United States. His time in LA liberally fanned the flames of social justice and political involvement that his previous experience had sparked within him.
As the thirties slipped into the forties, as the country’s economic status improved due to an increase in jobs produced by World War II (during which Guthrie would serve in both the Merchant Marine and the Army, fueled by his hatred for fascism), Woody headed East to New York City. Again, he journeyed across Middle America and bore witness to the lives of its citizens. He arrived in New York in February of 1940. That very month, as Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” commandeered the airwaves (as it had for many months before), Woody sat down to write a song in response. Berlin’s song, performed by Kate Smith, bothered Woody for reasons beyond its suffocating frequency. He deemed “God Bless America” blindly patriotic and in complete ignorance of the real America; the country whose struggling and suffering he had witnessed throughout his entire life had been deftly glossed over. To Woody, his country seemed to care little for their working class – to say nothing of those below the poverty line. He saw a clear schism between the “land so fair” Berlin had described and the bleak reality that unfolded around him. So, Woody put pen to paper, borrowed a melody from the Carter Family’s folksy 1930s gospel song “When the World’s on Fire”, and thus “This Land Is Your Land” was born. But the American people would not hear it for years to come.
Soon after, he was invited to play at a benefit concert put on by The Committee to Aid Agricultural Organization – the chairman of which was his friend John Steinbeck. It is here he meets Pete Seeger, a fellow performer at the benefit, and a lifelong friendship begins. Together with Lee Hays and Millard Lampell, Seeger and Guthrie formed a short-lived musical group called The Almanac Singers in the early forties. Their music, anchored by traditional folk and “hillbilly” music, was inarguably left-leaning. Their songs were political: in favor of unionization and the rights of the American worker, and warning the listener against the dangers of fascism, even calling Hitler out by name. The group’s catchy folk tunes and radical freedom of thought was enough to garner significant attention – and not all of it was welcome. The FBI branded The Almanac Singers a “seditious group.” The Singers disbanded soon after. Now was the time that Woody’s solo career would truly grow legs.
Throughout the forties and fifties, Woody Guthrie was extremely prolific, recording hundreds of songs and writing thousands more. His original work was inspired by the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression, among many other events in his life, and much of it was just as political as that of The Almanac Singers. He was known to perform with a sign stating “This Machine Kills Fascists” pasted on his guitar. He did not shy away from criticism and governmental surveillance; he was unafraid to share his thoughts with the world. That being said, the original version of “This Land Is Your Land” that he had written in 1940 had been altered by the time it was read and heard by the American people. Published in ‘45 and eventually recorded and released by Folkways Records in ‘51, the official version of the song omitted two verses, both of which elucidate Guthrie’s true intention.
“This Land Is Your Land” is a song of protest.
Protest against the American government. Protest against unequal distribution of wealth and land and the difficulties broadly faced by the working class. Protest against the suffering endured by millions of Americans. Even without the lost verses, this sentiment was more clear at the time than it is today, but has been warped and diluted by the passing years. Had his original version been widely circulated, this devolution of meaning would have been made virtually impossible. The clarity of the two lost verses is staggering:
There was a big high wall
there that tried to stop me.
The sign was painted,
said ‘Private Property.’
But on the backside,
it didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.
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.
These verses allow insight into the true meaning of the song. Guthrie wanted more for the American people – he saw his country as beautiful, yet unable or unwilling to provide for its struggling citizens. He believed that the bountiful resources of the United States should be shared by all; that wealth should not exist in the pockets of the few, but be spread amongst the many. At the time, of course, this kind of radical thinking would get you a first row seat at the McCarthy hearings – especially from someone who had already piqued the interest of the FBI. Thus, the incriminating lines were removed, tucked away to be unearthed through archival research decades later. In 2009, a ninety year old Pete Seeger, his grandson, and Bruce Springsteen performed “This Land is Your Land” with the lost verses included. The song could be heard in full, as Guthrie intended. The lyrics emanated from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and across the National Mall in celebration of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the first (and only, at the time of this writing) Black president of the United States.
The meaning imbued within “This Land is Your Land” is not limited to advocating for the working class – as time wore on, the song was used to protest other American issues as well. In the sixties, as the Civil Rights Movement and Folk Revival hit a fever pitch, Guthrie’s protest song made a comeback. This time, “This Land is Your Land” was used to advocate for equality between races in the United States; the lyrics angled in support of equal rights and opportunity for Black citizens. At this point, Woody Guthrie was no longer able to perform – like his mother, he was afflicted by Huntington’s disease: an inherited degenerative illness from which he would suffer for nearly two decades until his death in 1967. His music lived on. Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul, and Mary were among the notable artists performing and recording the song at the time. It didn’t stop there – the song spread internationally. Versions were recorded in Canada, Sweden, England, Ireland, Turkey, Guyana and more, the lyrics altered to fit each country’s purposes. Each version had a different meaning, a different cause for which they advocated. With the passing decades, layers of meaning were stratified one after another upon Guthrie’s song; an ever-growing snowball of protest and love for a country’s most trodden-upon citizens.
Perhaps there are some who are upset or disillusioned by “This Land is Your Land” being rooted in more than patriotism.
They might think Woody Guthrie hated his country, that the true meaning behind the song is inherently un-American. That could not be further from the truth. Guthrie wrote this song because he loved the American people; because he was deeply invested in the betterment of their lives. He believed that no American citizen was inherently better or more deserving than the next. What is America if not an amalgamation of all her people? This sentiment is not all that radical. To say this song is un-American would be to believe any critique upon the nation is an attack. Critique is far from total condemnation – it is an opening, an opportunity for change and improvement. That is why we have free speech. Ignoring or silencing critique from American citizens would be decidedly un-patriotic. Perhaps, alternatively, if one is angered by Guthrie’s message, it is because they place more value upon the country’s privileged elite. The struggles of others have no direct bearance upon their lives, so they would rather not think (or sing) about American suffering. Their version of America is divisible from the America of the less fortunate… no, that cannot be right. That line of thinking would be truly un-American, would it not?
This is not to say Guthrie got it 100% right. There is one extremely important area where the song falls short. The lyrics contain a gaping hole that should indeed be deemed un-American, especially within an ode to a country built upon stolen land. While the song pays tribute to the beauty of American soil and every citizen’s claim upon it, it has one glaring blind spot: The lyrics neglect to mention the Indigenous peoples of (what is now called) the United States; the people who have long occupied the very land of which Guthrie sings. Guthrie was very much aware of the genocide inflicted upon Indigenous peoples and the inhumane relegation of the diminished population to reservations across the nation, yet he does not leave space for them within this song. While some consider the song to be intentionally colonialist, they are few in number. It is more widely believed this oversight was unintentional, but it is important to discuss nonetheless – especially when the song is performed at American watershed moments like the Obama inauguration. Indigenous activist Carolyn “Cappy” Israel wrote her own verse in honor of her people:
“But it once was my land
Before we sold you Manhattan Island
You pushed our nations to the reservation
This land was stole by you from me.”
The addition of this verse, while not written by Guthrie, is just as important to the song and its evolution as any other. Pete Seeger often included it in his performances throughout his career in order to acknowledge the theft of Native land; an unfathomably huge injustice, so often forgotten or ignored. With the addition of Cappy Israel’s lyrics, the inclusivity intended and attempted by Guthrie was more fully accomplished. That being said, perhaps the evolution of “This Land is Your Land” is not over. Maybe it will continue, with more verses and lyrics added, to ensure the inclusion and equality of every American citizen. In the America of today, what new meaning might be imbued within these lyrics?
History often repeats itself. The country’s present situation is plagued by many of the same factors – threats to America and her people – that Guthrie sang and spoke out against.
The United States is quickly slipping under an ever-lengthening shadow of fascism. If nothing changes, it will eclipse the sun. Today, the stakes are high. Freedom, our most valuable resource, is under siege. The lives and livelihoods of American citizens – teachers, healthcare workers, government employees, historians, immigrants, people of color, indigenous people, members of the LGBTQ+ community, your mothers, your sisters and your daughters – are under attack. Voices and actions and songs of protest have never been more important. Maybe it is time to write a new verse.
“This Land is Your Land” can take on a plethora of different meanings. Each individual can imbue it with whatever significance rings true. Every interpretation adds to the richness of the song, be it patriotism, egalitarianism, colonialism, anti-racism, nationalism, socialism, capitalism or anti-capitalism. It can stand for all of these things at once, or none of them at all. Music is meant to be colored by personal experience, to be heard differently through every ear. Regardless, one aspect of Woody Guthrie’s message, inarguable and nonpartisan, should always remain at the core of this song: unity.
* * *
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.
– Woody Guthrie
* * *
“This Land Is Your Land” – Woody Guthrie
— — — —
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Lester Balog
© Lester Balog:: Stream Woody Guthrie ::
