This Land Is Your Land

  • This Land Is Your Land

    Words and Music by Woody Guthrie


    This Land Is Your Land The story of This Land Is Your Land

    Woody Guthrie was a famous American folk singer and songwriter. He was born in the state of Oklahoma.  During the Great Depression, a time of widespread hardship in the 1930’s, Woody traveled the country looking for work. He traveled from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean in the East to California and the Pacific Ocean in the West. He worked on farms and he worked in factories.

    Everywhere he went Woody heard the songs of the people. He wrote many of his own songs about how working people struggled to make a living. He wrote “This Land Is Your Land” to remind people that America is the land of the free. When he sang, “This land is made for you and me” he meant that with so many natural resources no one should ever go hungry or feel like they don’t have a say in how things are run. 

    CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH A VIDEO WITH LYRICS:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeMLaQTwIgU

    TO READ THE FULL LYRICS - SCROLL BELOW THE PICTURE

      

    CHORUS:

    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

     

    VERSE 1: 

    As I was 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

     

    REPEAT THE  CHORUS AFTER EACH VERSE


    VERSE 2:

    I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps 

    To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

    And all around me a voice was sounding 

    This land was made for you and me

     

    VERSE 3:

    When the sun came shining, and I was strolling

    And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling

    As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting

    This land was made for you and me

     

    VERSE 4:

    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

     

    VERSE 5:

    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

     

    VERSE 6:

    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