When it comes to songs that have influenced society, “This Land Is Your Land” is at the top of the list.  Written around 1940 by Woody Guthrie, who is known simply as Woody by many.  Gutherie was a folk singer-songwriter who wrote thousands of songs, despite his life being cut short.  American people were influenced by numerous songs written by Gutherie wrote, but none more than, “This Land Is Your Land”.  The song continues to influence people today sixty years later.

The song was sung in school, often in the earlier grades, less so in the higher grades.  It touches the soul of young kids with its simple and fun tune. The lyrics say, “This land is my land” which makes one feel they belong to something bigger than self, making them feel included.  The lyrics go on to say, “This land is your land” saying all belong, no matter race, which helped ease racial tensions at school, despite some kids still having racist parents at home.

The verse “Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking, That freedom highway, Nobody living can make me turn back, This land was made for you and me”, screams patriotism. That verse makes you feel unstoppable and proud of the country, to feel free, and makes you want to protect it, even for a young kid.  Those lyrics plant a seed of patriotism and equality, that in many cases continues to grow well into adulthood.

According to writer Sean McCollum with the Kennedy Center, Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in response to a song written by Irving Berlin called “God Bless America”.   The Great Depression was in its tenth year, Guthrie feeling the pain of Americans’ struggles said, “Berlin’s song was too sappy, too blindly patriotic and too far cut from the hard-knock life many Americans were facing”.   The song was played over and over, everywhere Woody went, and it was making him “nutty”.  Gutherie felt a lot of Americans were not feeling very “blessed” at the time.

According to the Kennedy Center,  Gutherie said,  “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 your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.”.

In 1940 when Guthrie wrote the song, he titled it “God Blessed America for Me”, but he changed the title before the song was released.   Gutherie also changed some of the lyrics as well, the original lyrics included two verses that were removed:

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.

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?

After changing the lyrics, the song could fit any American.  The song was so easy to sing it was great, even for kids. The song is often sung in schools to this day, along with the song that was driving Gutherie nuts, Irving Berlin’s song, “God Bless America.”

According to music writer, Kenneth Partridge, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax came up with the idea of including the song in school music textbooks.  Alan Lomax was the Archive’s “Assistant in Charge” for the Library of Congress. He was working on documenting folk songs for the archives and had worked with Gutherie several times in the past.  In 1950, Lomax shared his idea with Howie Richmond, Guthrie’s manager at the time.  Richmond liked the idea so much, that he lowered the licensing rate to the textbook publisher for “This Land Is Your Land” to $1.00.

Throughout the 50s, 60s,70s, 80s and some of the 90s, every kid who attended school got to know and love this song, probably more so, than any other song.  In the late 90s, introduction to musical arts started declining in schools due to budget cuts. Schools in areas with better economics somehow found money to continue music programs in their local schools.  Many schools with strong PTAs were able to raise the funds to keep their music program as well.   Today there are still some school districts with music programs for children starting from the time they enter school.  Some of the schools that lost funding shifted the responsibility to regular teachers in the lower grades and many teachers still sing “This Land Is Your Land” with their students.  Up to seven, but positively five decades of children grew up with this song, that offered inclusion, equality, and patriotism.  This song is known by almost everyone in America and it doesn’t matter which genre/s of music one prefers.

The kids may grow up, but they don’t forget this song.  President Ronald Reagan used this song in 1984 at his victory party.  Pete Seger and Bruce Springsteen performed this song at Barack Obama’s pre-inauguration party held at the Washington Monument. Jennifer Lopez sang this song at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.  And it is not just presidents.  The song has been used in commercials by the likes of Target and others. In 2016, Budweiser temporarily rebranded their flagship beer “America”, and included the lyrics “…from the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me” on their labels. In 2017, Sam Hunt recorded “This Land is Your Land” for the movie Bright.

In 2002, Guthrie’s 1944 recording of “This Land Is Your Land” was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry for that year.

“The most influential folk singer in American history”, wrote Rolling Stone magazine when they listed Guthrie as #28 of the 100 greatest songwriters.  They included in the short description how Gutherie would write a song, then he would search all genres to find a tune for the song.  They went on to say Guthrie, “created songs that addressed, and helped shaped, the world unfolding around him.”  According to Rolling Stone, when Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land,” he borrowed its melody from an old gospel tune called “Oh My Loving Brother”. (The Carter Family had previously used the same tune for their recording of “When the World’s on Fire”.)

Rolling Stone ended their writing on Gutherie with a quote by Bob Dylan, “Guthrie’s music had the infinite sweep of humanity”.  Like Gutherie, Bob Dylan, originally from Minnesota, started his career in New York. Five days after arriving Dylan tracked down Gutherie.  By this time Gutherie was in the hospital and no longer able to play his songs.  Dylan visited often and any time Gutherie would talk or ask about a song Dylan would play it for him. Dylan knew every one of Gutherie’s songs.  Dylan wrote songs all the time, but on his first album he only included two of his own songs and one of them was “Song to Woody”.  Over the years Dylan has covered several of Gutherie’s songs.  When Woody passed away, Dylan held a concert at Carnegie Hall to honor his hero by playing his songs, particularly the most controversial of Gutherie’s songs.  Later when asked to write about Gutherie for an upcoming book, Dylan wrote the poem titled, “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie”

Dylan was not the only one influenced by Guthrie.  There are several folk songwriters and musicians that if you ask them who influenced them, Guthrie is on their list.   According to SecondHand Songs, a cover song database site, between the years 1956 and 2020, 147 different musicians recorded “This Land Is Your Land”.   A few names from their list include Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Spinners, Bruce Springsteen, Lee Greenwood, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and more.  “This Land Is Your Land” has been recorded by musicians from several other countries, in several different languages, such as Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Welsh, and Spanish.

Gutherie was born in Oklahoma but hit the road at 19. In Pampa, Texas he met his first wife, had three children, and attempted his first musical career with his brother-in-law Matt Jennings when they formed The Corn Cob Trio, and later the Pampa Junior Chamber of Commerce Band.  Like many others did during the Great Dust Bowl and the Depression, Guthrie hit the road for California. Alone, broke, and hungry, he hitchhiked, rode freight trains, and walked to California, painting and performing along the way. Gutherie left California for New York.  By the time Gutherie wrote “This Land is Your Land” he had traveled like a hobo back and forth across the United States and was living in a run-down hotel.

During his first year in New York Gutherie recorded several conversations and songs for the Library of Congress in Washington, DC after meeting the Archive’s assistant in charge, Alan Lomax. Also, that first year he recorded his first album of all original songs, “Dust Bowl Ballads” for RCA Victor.  He became close friends with Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, and many others. Gutherie was in a group called The Almanac Singers that took up several social causes.  The Almanac Singers helped make Folk music a popular and profitable genre.  A decade later the original members of the group reformed as the group known as the Weavers, one of the most influential folk music groups of the early 1950s.

From New York, Gutherie went to Oregon where he worked on a film project about the building of the Grand Coulee Dam where he wrote and recorded several songs.  When the project came to an end about a month later, he went back to Pampa, Texas before hitchhiking back to New York.

During WWII Guthrie served in the military and was shipped out to sea several times.  While in the military, Guthrie composed hundreds of songs protesting Hitler and the war, historic ballads to rally the troops, patriotic songs, and even songs about sexually transmitted diseases, which were published in brochures distributed to military personnel.  After the war ended Guthrie first wrote songs for children and then songs about Jewish Culture after being exposed to the Jewish community.

Toward the end of the 40s Guthrie started acting erratic, moody and became violent a few times, and he moved back to California. A short time later he moved to Florida where he started writing his third novel and wrote songs about racial and environmental issues.  Gutherie’s health continued to deteriorate.  Back in New York, Gutherie was hospitalized several times and mistakenly treated for various conditions, but nothing helped.  In 1954 he was arrested for “vagrancy” in New Jersey which landed him in a psychiatric hospital where he was finally correctly diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea, an incurable degenerative nerve disorder now known as Huntington’s Disease or HD.

While in the hospital numerous upcoming folk musicians visited Guthrie, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Greenbriar Boys, and more, bringing their guitars and their songs to play for Gutherie.

Guthrie died on October 3, 1967, while hospitalized, as a result of Huntington’s Disease.  Less than a month later, Guthrie’s 18-year-old son, Arlo Guthrie, following in his father’s footsteps, recording of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre” was released.  The title was shortened later to just “Alice’s Restaurant”.  The song was about true events that had happened in Arlo’s life but would be considered a song protesting the war (Vietnam) by many.

In 1970, Gutherie was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, and in 1988 he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other honors and awards include but are not limited to U.S. Department of the Interior, Conservation Service Award (1966), The Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame inductee (1977), The North American Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award (1996), National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Lifetime Achievement Award (1999), The Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductee (2006) and The Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, Pioneer Award (2012).

Guthrie not only influenced our social culture but also had a big influence on music culture as well.  Guthrie had many personal losses at a young age and struggled through the same events that challenged Americans at the time such as the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II, as well as social and political unrest.  Gutherie used that first-hand knowledge and wrote songs about real-life issues that connected to the American people.  Many of these songs can still be applied to today’s struggles. This is just one of the reasons musicians continue to cover Gutherie’s songs today, more than 50 years after his death.  There are many songs by various musicians, in all genres, that have socially influenced the American people but none more so than “This Land is Your Land”, due to the song’s exposure to so many in their most formative years.  Guthrie’s influence on the American people and modern musicians lives on today, with no end in sight.