This Land is Your Land

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Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen sing Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” at the Obama Inaugural Celebration Concert on 1/18/09.

Several “subversive verses” that have been censored for being overtly political were restored to this traditional folk song that refer back to the Depression years:

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;

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.

“This Land Is Your Land” Like Woody Wrote It