This Land is Your Land

Originally titled "God Blessed America," Guthrie wrote this as a parody of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." When Guthrie started writing the song in 1940, the last line in the chorus was "God blessed America for me," which Guthrie eventually changed into "This land was made for you and me." It evolved into a protest anthem as generations of folk singers performed the song, but it is often misinterpreted as a patriotic song. The lyrics express Guthrie's belief that the working class should have the same rights as the rich.

Anna Canoni is Guthrie's granddaughter and a director at the Woody Guthrie Foundation. She considers this one of Guthrie's most powerful songs. Anna told us: "It's the most famous, but there's a reason why it's the most famous. I think that often people will just look at the words on the surface and not really look into what he's talking about. But when Woody wrote, he wrote in double entendres, and sometimes triple. And there's enough to keep you thinking. I think his music was really to keep you thinking and start up a conversation. It wasn't just something nice to listen to, it's something that needs to be said to begin a discussion. And I would define that as great songwriting. So 'This Land Is Your Land' would fit into that."

Guthrie got the melody for this song from a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire." Canoni explains: "He wrote music and he could play a ton of different instruments, but his strength was certainly his lyric writing. He would often borrow tunes. As Woody put it, 'Well, if they already know the tune, they're halfway to knowing the song.' The Carter Family was certainly a big influence on him. He always loved the idea of having a family band. His mother was his other main music influence, she used to sing these old Scotch-Irish ballads. And you could even see on the lyrics that he even wrote - he wrote "To the tune of..." and he would reference either another song he'd written or one by someone else." (Thanks to Anna Canoni for speaking with us about this song. Read more in her full interview. Learn much more at the official Woody Guthrie website.)