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This Land Is Your Land
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This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is a song by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. One of the United States' most famous folk songs, its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Its melody is based on a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire". When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land".
In 1989, a 1947 release on the Asch record label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In 2002, "This Land Is Your Land" was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was listed at No. 229 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," and in 2025, it was listed at No. 11 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."
Guthrie's melody was very similar to the melody of "Oh, My Loving Brother", a Baptist gospel hymn that had been recorded by the Carter Family as "When the World's On Fire" and had inspired their "Little Darlin', Pal of Mine." He used the same melody for the chorus and the verses.
Guthrie's song, however, had a different melodic structure from the hymn or the similar Carter Family melodies, and he used only the first half of those melodies in his song. The melodic structure of the presumed models can be described as "ABCD", a new melodic phrase for each of its four lines. Guthrie's structure, however, is "ABAC". As such, Guthrie's rendition repeats the beginning of the melody (the "A" section) for his third line; the melodic phrase for his fourth line ("This land was made for you and me") is found in neither the hymn nor the Carter Family melodies.[citation needed]
The original lyrics were composed on February 23, 1940, in Guthrie's room at the Hanover House hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. (101 West 43rd St.) in New York. The line "This land was made for you and me" does not appear in the original manuscript at the end of each verse, but is implied by Guthrie's writing of those words at the top of the page and by his subsequent singing of the line with those words.
According to Joe Klein, after Guthrie composed it, "he completely forgot about the song, and didn't do anything with it for another five years."
In 1944, during World War II, Guthrie prepared another version, which drops the two verses that are critical of the United States from the original: verse four, regarding private property, and verse six, regarding hunger. In 1940, Guthrie was in the anti-war phase he entered after the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, during which he wrote songs praising the Soviet invasion of Poland, attacking President Roosevelt's loans to Finland in defense against the Soviets, and ridiculing Lend-Lease aid to the United Kingdom. By 1944, after Germany had invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Guthrie returned to vigorous support for U.S. involvement in Europe and a more anti-nationalism stance.
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This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is a song by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. One of the United States' most famous folk songs, its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Its melody is based on a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire". When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land".
In 1989, a 1947 release on the Asch record label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In 2002, "This Land Is Your Land" was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was listed at No. 229 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," and in 2025, it was listed at No. 11 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."
Guthrie's melody was very similar to the melody of "Oh, My Loving Brother", a Baptist gospel hymn that had been recorded by the Carter Family as "When the World's On Fire" and had inspired their "Little Darlin', Pal of Mine." He used the same melody for the chorus and the verses.
Guthrie's song, however, had a different melodic structure from the hymn or the similar Carter Family melodies, and he used only the first half of those melodies in his song. The melodic structure of the presumed models can be described as "ABCD", a new melodic phrase for each of its four lines. Guthrie's structure, however, is "ABAC". As such, Guthrie's rendition repeats the beginning of the melody (the "A" section) for his third line; the melodic phrase for his fourth line ("This land was made for you and me") is found in neither the hymn nor the Carter Family melodies.[citation needed]
The original lyrics were composed on February 23, 1940, in Guthrie's room at the Hanover House hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. (101 West 43rd St.) in New York. The line "This land was made for you and me" does not appear in the original manuscript at the end of each verse, but is implied by Guthrie's writing of those words at the top of the page and by his subsequent singing of the line with those words.
According to Joe Klein, after Guthrie composed it, "he completely forgot about the song, and didn't do anything with it for another five years."
In 1944, during World War II, Guthrie prepared another version, which drops the two verses that are critical of the United States from the original: verse four, regarding private property, and verse six, regarding hunger. In 1940, Guthrie was in the anti-war phase he entered after the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, during which he wrote songs praising the Soviet invasion of Poland, attacking President Roosevelt's loans to Finland in defense against the Soviets, and ridiculing Lend-Lease aid to the United Kingdom. By 1944, after Germany had invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Guthrie returned to vigorous support for U.S. involvement in Europe and a more anti-nationalism stance.
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