*This is the first post in a larger exploration of American Protest Music, Songwriting, and Poetry. If you enjoy this post, please subscribe, share, and comment. Thanks for your time and attention, comrades!

“This Land is Your Land” – The Folk National Anthem

Here in the US, we have an official National Anthem and a Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Closer in spirit to the latter, I say there’s room for another—a Folk National Anthem—and I can’t think of a better candidate than Woody’s best-known song. A song that celebrates not only the unity of a nation, but calls for the sharing of its bounty, champions its freedom-demanding spirit, and honors the glorious diversity found in its natural wonders, its bustling cities, and its hopeful inhabitants.

For me, “This Land Is Your Land” embodies the best kind of patriotism: a love for your country celebrating its wonders and its people, whose impact far exceeds the ‘official’ anthem, with its flag-waving, war-glorifying nationalism. Maybe there’s still a place for the lofty and bombastic “Star-Spangled Banner,” but at this moment, for me, every note of it rings hollow. If this is a democracy (even one on life-support), I should get a vote for my national anthem, and I cast my vote here.

The Radical Verses

Depending on your personal experience with Woody’s masterpiece, you may have expected the above recording to go on for two or three more verses. These verses—which Woody himself never recorded, and were therefore not widely known until much later, thanks to the efforts of his son, Arlo—are sometimes called radical and socialist and bring it into the realm of the protest song.

The ‘complete,’ or ‘extended,’ version of the song may have been first performed by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen as part of the “We Are One” concert for Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration (January 18, 2009). While we’ll sadly never get to hear Woody sing this version in his own voice and style, performances like this still capture the spirit of both the song and the Great Poet-Folk Singer himself.

Patriotism & Protest

After watching the video above, I ask you to read the official song lyrics at woodyguthrie.org. Then decide for yourself which version you prefer. For me, “This Land Is Your Land” meets every requirement for a Folk National Anthem even without the additional verses. But with them, with their defiance of barriers in the name of freedom, critique of wealth inequality, and unwavering spirit of self-determination, it becomes not just an anthem, but one of the greatest protest songs ever written. I say it’s time (past time) to embrace and bring into balance both of these aspects—the hopeful patriotism and the defiant protest—not just in “This Land Is Your Land” and similar works of art, but in our communities, our families, and ourselves.

One Nation, Many Anthems

Who says that a nation needs to be limited to one (or even a small number) of national anthems? A nation’s anthems should be as numerous and diverse as its peoples. So let’s embrace the Black National Anthem, a Folk National Anthem, a Mexican-American National Anthem, a Trans National Anthem, and on and on. After all, the US is not a melting pot, with all cultures melding into a single, flavorless homogeny. It will take many voices, singing many anthems, to bring this nation into harmony.

Dig Deeper

Read
– More Official Lyrics from woodyguthrie.org
– Song Page from Wikipedia
– The Story Behind the Song from Library of Congress
– This Land is Your Land Picturebook (2020)

Watch
This Land Is Your Land: The Story of an American Anthem – YouTube

~No A.I. resources or tools were used in the creation of this post.~