I was around the age of five when I first heard this song:
“This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.”
It was mystifying. I had never listened to lyrics that had felt so intrinsically right. Even at a very young age, the lyrics resonated with me, creating a sense of pride for my country in a way that I had yet to fully understand. On Feb. 23, 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote the timeless folk song “This Land is Your Land,” with lyrics that people in this country today may have forgotten the true meaning of.
Guthrie was introduced to music at a young age, with his childhood being rather carefree. His father was a small-town politician and businessman in rural Oklahoma and, before the Great Depression, quite prosperous. Things took a turn for the Guthrie family when the stock market crash left the business in shambles, and his mother died of a mysterious illness.
With his family split apart, Guthrie eventually took to the road at 15 with his guitar and harmonica, playing songs for migrant workers and others he met along the way. Eventually reaching the American West, he sought notoriety as a western singer, making appearances on the radio. He was also inspired by those around him to write his own music about the plights and poverty people faced during that time— “This Land is Your Land” being one of them.
At the time, Irving Berlin’s song “God Bless America” was playing on the radio constantly, irking Guthrie with lyrics that he felt glossed over the wealth disparity and poverty in the country. Guthrie’s song was originally titled “God Blessed America For Me,” with those lyrics being repeated throughout, but he ended up changing it to “This land is made for you and me” when recording it in 1944. Shortly after, Guthrie joined the Merchant Marines to fight in World War II, and during his time in service, he boosted morale with his singing and guitar.
Guthrie’s music career would be cut unfortunately short in 1954 when he suffered from the same illness that killed his mother;Huntington’s disease. The genetic disorder is autosomal dominant, meaning that Guthrie only needed to have inherited one copy of the mutant gene to have it. In his later years, he was visited at the hospital by the many artists he inspired, and “This land is your land” would become an important song during the Civil Rights Movement.
When Guthrie wrote this song, the country was in a state of turmoil and strife, with uncertainty for what was to come. In fact, it was perhaps similar to what the world feels like now. Music is important; it accompanies the movements that shape our country into what it is today, and it will be interesting to see what artists of this era will create.
“Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my Freedom Highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.”