The history of protest music is filled with tunes that are often misinterpreted. One example is Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”. Originally composed as “God Blessed America for Me”, instead of being a patriotic tune, it was meant as a caustic critique of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”.
The tune’s most potent lyrics often get excluded: “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.” Those lyrics were omitted from the initial release, but there is a 1944 recording which includes them.
The video below includes the oft-excluded lyrics.
When Guthrie originally penned the tune he also included the politically hard-hitting lyrics: “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 / In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple / By the relief office, I’d seen my people / As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking / Is this land made for you and me?”
Covers by artists such as Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and My Morning Jacket have included some variances of those lost verses.
This open border anthem which rallies against class distinctions, is more relevant than ever.