Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
"This machine kills fascists"
If you were to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my land.” The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 folk classic is common knowledge...as are the first couple of verses
But it isn’t until you get to the later verses-the verses often omitted from official versions-that you start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody had in mind:
As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there
And that sign said “No trespassin’”
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin
Now that side was made for you and me
In the squares of the city/In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me
Let’s not forget that Guthrie penned the damn song in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Let’s also not forget the words Woody scrawled on his guitar:
Woody Guthrie says: “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
