Woody Guthrie, “This Land” (1940-1945)

“This Land” was written by Woodie Guthrie in 1940 and first recorded in 1944 at Folkway Records. According to folk singer Pete Seeger, Guthrie printed the songs’ lyrics and music in 1955 with the note, “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.” Song lyrics were first published in 1945.

As I go walking this ribbon of highway

I see above me this endless skyway

And all around me the wind keeps saying:

This land is made for you and me.

Chorus:

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

This land is made for you and me.

I roam and I ramble and I follow my footsteps

Till I come to the sands of her mineral desert

The mist is lifting and the voice is saying:

This land is made for you and me.

Where the wind is blowing I go a strolling

The wheat field waving and the dust a rolling

The fog is lifting and the wind is saying:

This land is made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me

As I go walking my freedom highway

Nobody living can make me turn back

This land is made for you and me.

[Source: Woody Guthrie, “This Land,” 10 of Woody Guthrie’s Songs (1945). Available online via Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/10_of_Woody_Guthrie%27s_Songs/This_Land).]