Woody Guthrie [UPDATED]

Today is the 108th anniversary of his birth in Okemah, Oklahoma. "This Land Is Your Land" is probably the most famous of his many songs. The versions below include some of the often-omitted political verses:

UPDATES (h/t Hank Reichman)

 

Comments

[Ellen Wertheimer]

Thanks so much for posting this wonderful version of a wonderful song. In the 1960s, there was a movement to replace The Star Spangled Banner with this song as the national anthem. As we all know today, it did not succeed.

People often ignore the political content of folk songs. Perhaps the politics of the folk song movement were lost to McCarthyism (The Weavers, among many, were blacklisted as part of his hideous efforts). If so, we all need to be wary of the long term consequences of vile political phenomena like McCarthyism.