“This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940. Recently I heard a radio show that mentioned the genesis of the song and that most often we do not hear all the original lyrics.  For some reason, rising early on our nation’s Independence Day, I looked up the original lyrics. The song was a musical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”, which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called “God Blessed America for Me”.

Continue reading →