If you ever got choked up (as I did, often) while watching coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration, grab a tissue for the powerful video (see below) of Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, and Seeger’s grandson Tao performing Woody Guthrie’s great song “This Land Is Your Land” in Sunday’s “We Are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Their rendition included the more provocative verses—verses most performers leave out:
In the squares of the city,
By the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office, I saw my people .
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.Chorus [This land is my land…]
There was a big high wall there
That tried to stop me;
A sign was painted—
It said private property.
But on the other side,
It didn’t say nothin’.
That side was made for you and me.Chorus [This land is my land…]
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.
Let’s all hope that Obama allows himself to be guided by the spirit inhabiting this song—our real national anthem….
Thanks to my friend and fellow poet Bob Cooperman for sending me the link for this one.
Great collective moment. I still marvel at what the world has made of Guthrie’s little happy-melancholy tune.