World News Trust World News Trust
World News Trust World News Trust
  • News Portal
  • All Content
    • Edited
      • News
      • Commentary
      • Analysis
      • Advisories
      • Source
    • Flatwire
  • Topics
    • Agriculture
    • Culture
      • Arts
      • Children
      • Education
      • Entertainment
      • Food and Hunger
      • Sports
    • Disasters
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health
    • Media
    • Science
    • Spiritual
    • Technology
    • Transportation
    • War
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Americas
      • North America
      • South America
    • Antarctica
    • Arctic
    • Asia
    • Australia/Oceania
    • Europe
    • Middle East
    • Oceans
      • Arctic Ocean
      • Atlantic Ocean
      • Indian Ocean
      • Pacific Ocean
      • Southern Ocean
    • Space
  • World Desk
    • Submit Content
  • About Us
  • Sign In/Out
  • Register
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us
  • Russia's War and the Global Economy | Nouriel Roubini
  • U.S. Considers Radical Rethinking Of Dollar For Today's Digital World | David Gura
  • Why is Israel Amending Its Open-Fire Policy?: Three Possible Answers | Ramzy Baroud
  • WATCH: Republican National Committee Abandons America
  • ‘Previously Unknown Massacres’: Why is Israel Allowed to Own Palestinian History? | Ramzy Baroud
  • The Revolt of the Imagination, Part One: Notes on Belbury Syndrome | John Michael Greer
  • Human gut bacteria have sex to share vitamin B12 | University of California - Riverside

Woody Guthrie: A little recession music, please (Mickey Z.)

More items by author
Categories
Edited | Commentary | Commentary -- WNT Reports | WNT Reports
Tool Bar
View Comments

  Dec. 4, 2008 (World News Trust) -- If you were to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my land.” The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 classic is common knowledge… as are the first couple of verses. But it ain’t until you get to the later verses -- those often omitted from official versions -- that you start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody had in mind:

 

As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there

And that sign said “No tresspassin’”

But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’

Now that side was made for you and me


In the squares of the city/In the shadow of the steeple

Near the relief office, I see my people

And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’

If this land’s still made for you and me

 

  Woody sez: “This song is Copyrighted in United States, 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.”

  Let’s not forget that Guthrie penned “This Land is My Land” in response to Irving Berlin’s saccharine “God Bless America.”

  And let’s not forget the words Woody scrawled on his guitar: “This machine kills fascists.”

  Let’s also not forget the power and prescience of Guthrie’s lyrics, like this from “Jesus Christ”:


Jesus was a man who traveled through the land

A hard working man and brave

He said to the rich, "Give your money to the poor,"

But they laid Jesus Christ in His grave


And this from “Pretty Boy Floyd”:


Yes, as through this world I've wandered

I've seen lots of funny men

Some will rob you with a six-gun,

And some with a fountain pen


And as through your life you travel,

Yes, as through your life you roam,

You won't never see an outlaw

Drive a family from their home


  Woody Guthrie laid the foundation for generations of American singer-songwriters to use their music and lyrics to challenge the prevailing platitudes of popular music… and to provide a Greek chorus of protest and outrage to keep us all more honest and aware.

  With the stakes having never been higher and the denial never deeper, what we choose to do with this awareness and outrage -- right now -- is genuinely a matter of life and death…

  Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

back to top
  • Created
    Thursday, December 04 2008
  • Last modified
    Wednesday, November 06 2013
  1. You are here:  
  2. Home
  3. All Content
  4. Edited
  5. Woody Guthrie: A little recession music, please (Mickey Z.)
Copyright © 2022 World News Trust. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.