While researching so I could submit a response to a section in the Atlanta paper called The Vent about the true meaning of Bruce Springstein's "Born In The USA" , I found a page that quotes Springstein as saying Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your Land" was mistaken for a song about how great America is and this is what it says - "According to Springsteen, Guthrie's song was "what America could have been about" rather than what it actually turned out to be." You sing this at every show and it feels like we're singing it along with you as a "uniting" song. Is what Bruce says true?

I have read and heard that Woody wrote it somewhat in response to Irving Berlin's " God Bless America". Kinda like Irving was wearing rose colored glasses with a "rah rah" song, and Woody was clear eyed and speaking for and about the common man.

What The Boss says is true for him

arlo - thanks for answering. we just saw you at the manship theater in baton rouge and that was my 7th time to see you and i have always felt the well-deserved pride you have for your father who i studied in my "sociology of labor" course in college (in my mid 30's) and where i learned he was a labor organizer and i had been a fan of yours for years and i realized where you get your great thinking. we also were in the very front at tipitina's and i got fussed at by ramblin' jack elliot shortly after the times-picayune photographer got fussed at for lights on our cameras.

larry - i like your answer and i read the irving berlin thing too. no matter what "the boss" thinks, i think the "real" america IS the common man and that's something of which to be proud.

arlo - i love your "cryptic" answer but i truly believe i understand it so i will continue to sing along with pride if/when you're ever down south again! arlo - you were my anti-draft hero in the late 60's and in 10th gradem, i wore a moratorium button to school and my geometry teacher forced me to go to the guidance office and tell them i wanted to drop out of school (i was an honor student!) but i learned a lot from that experience and how the spirit of being an american doesn't always jive with the reality. now on to listening to country joe and the fish singing "feel-like-i'm-fixing-to-die-rag"! i just put it on my computer and haven't heard it in years.

thank you both for your answers! and arlo, i ride a motorcycle too and the story you told about the bike in the house had us in tears! i'm glad to be in baton rouge where we can ride even on "winter" days (when the lows are in the 40's at night)

Well thats just true...

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

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.

Chorus (2x)

If Woody were alive today, at 95 years old, I wonder what he might add to help us understand the times we are going through?

i think if he came back after being away, he might wonder what the hell happened! if he lived through it all, i think he'd still be rallying for those that are being taken advantage of by bureaucracy as well as the "common" people which i think is AT LEAST 95% of americans. too many of us, even those of us not in financial trouble, are being taken advantage of by different factions of government bureaucracy that didn't exist in the 30's and 40's. i think woody would be appalled at the way too many young people behave because the world has given them so many vices that most parents, although they are given the blame, have no control over because of the media and certain government agencies that seem to be against parental control and the kids know it. i believe most have the heart of the common man but too many think the word common has to mean something negative. i believe the common man is grounded in reality and has an open, loving spirit that wants to help others. maybe i just need more arlo "pep talks" because i always feel so refreshed after seeing him even when i feel like my life is going to hell in a handbag, whatever THAT means. maybe i'm the one wearing rose-colored glasses.

I know what you mean when you speak of those "Arlo 'pep talks.'"
Everytime I leave an Arlo show, the world seems a little brighter.
Lord knows, we could use some brightening up these days. Maybe Woody would have advocated singing our way out of the blues and, dammit, singing may be all we have left.
Mahaspanda: the Great Vibration.
I'll be seeing Arlo this weekend in Tucson and am looking forward to another great "pep talk."

I sometimes explore the vibrational realms. The dhuni must be kept going.

Don't leave off the most important verse:

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

You could look it up: http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm

kurt...

i remember back in high school (yes, i remember some of the late 60's and early 70's...lol) that i read some "quotes" that really stayed with me and that last verse reminded me of one - "stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage". i also remember writing "we are outlaws, we are free" all over my notebooks in 11th grade and then in my late 20's, i married a guy with the last name "outlaw"...lol i try not to be a sarcastic person but when people ask me how to spell it, i have to bite my tongue from saying "is it the 'out' or the 'law' giving you a problem...lol (menopause has turned me into a more "forthcoming" person...lol)
anyway, i got off topic as usual, i just have good meds since my back got run over by a the back wheel/tire of a large tractor in 1988 and they cause me to ramble so everyone please pay no attention to the ramblin's when they get off topic!

Sometimes the rambling is just as interesting as the rest of the conversation, I'm not going to ask about the tractor tire....

just a freak accident on a sand bar on the creek on property we lived on in georgia...not nearly as bad as when i hit the train in georgia in 1973! as for the tractor incident, thank God my ex pulled me away just before the bush hog ran over me! since i survived these things relatively unscathed considering the incidents (my knee was cut down to the kneecap in the train thing but it was because i had an 8 track player installed under the dash to the left of the steering wheel which wasn't smart on my part...lol) and i have muscle problems from the tractor incident but those and a few other things that have happened to me and i'm still here make me wonder why - what is my purpose - and i finally figured out i think it's for the many small things i do for people i know who don't have cars to go to the grocery store or to be there for my friends and relatives who are going through much more stress than i am, etc.- seeing arlo and listening to him speak always reminds me that you can be important even if you're not known for it by the rest of the world and maybe that counts even more. i don't need recognition, i just need to know i have a purpose. arlo and his entire family have given so much of themselves. we're lucky to have them.