Today is the 70th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land"

[Brickbat]

:patriot:

http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

And the post that reminded me -- if you don't already, check out Omaha Steve's daily labor posts, because they're awesome:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x25316

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.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
While all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting, As the fog was lifting,
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was 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.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

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.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Hear Woody sing his song!

Woody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE&feature=related

[Brickbat]

2. "I hate a song that makes you think you are not any good."

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim, too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.

"I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops. No matter what color, what size you are, how you are built. I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

"I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your song books are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow."

[gmoney]

3. I always wondered what songs he was talking about in that quote...

Was "Hey Poor Guy, Bite Me" a big hit or something?

Or is he talking Fred Astaire "Puttin' on the Ritz" or something?

Interesting... his full name was "Woodrow Wilson Guthrie" evidently named after the guy who got us into WWI, started the Federal Reserve, progressive income tax, federal drug prohibition, and tolerated racial segregation (according to wikipedia). Of course, he also was president when women got the vote, helped form the League of Nations, won the Nobel Peace Prize and a few other things. Guthrie would have been born the summer Wilson was campaigning for president. Draw your own conclusions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson

[Edwin Edwards Fan]

4. Another legend

I wonder what ever happened to his son Arlo? He sang Alice's Cafe