Woody Guthrie is one of the most famous of the American folk music writers, and considered one of the most activist. He produced a prodigious amount of songs, books, and other media during his productive years. Guy Logsdon points out that “In a span of approximately seventeen years Oklahoma’s most creative native son wrote two autobiographical novels, numerous essays and articles, more than one thousand songs and poems, and hundreds of letters, drew over five hundred illustrations, recorded hundreds of songs, and was a major influence in the urban folk revival, in the folk rock movement, and in social protest song writing.” He attacked the rich, the government, and any other problem he saw. His anthem “This Land is Your Land,” probably his most famous work, is also one of his most misunderstood works. It is often considered a patriotic hymn, singing the praises of the United States. However, it was one of his most activist songs when he wrote it. Is it still an activist song? Though at the time it was written it was activist, and strongly so, “This Land is Your Land” no longer meets the criteria for activist rhetoric, because the issue it argued has long since been settled, and the audience to which it appealed has largely disappeared. What does a song have to be for it to be activist?
In order for a song to be activist rhetoric, it must meet several conditions. First, the lyrics must have a coherent position on a contemporary issue. Second, the song itself must lobby for change in society to solve the problem. Third, the song must appeal to a broad enough audience to have a good chance of effecting the change. Finally, the song’s lyrics must be supported by the personal life of the artist, who must be active personally, working for change, or else the artist ought to have personal experience with the problem in order to have credible reasons for being activist.
Why must a song have a logical position on a contemporary issue? Songs about irrelevant issues will not effect any change. Instead, they will be quickly forgotten, songs that are pointless and without reason for existence. An activist song must apply to real world problems, or else it cannot be working for change, which is the definition of activism.
Furthermore, the song must lobby strongly for change in society. Many songs complain, but few take a bold stance, attack the problem head on, state the errors, and propose a solution. The proposal of a solution is a key part of lobbying strongly for change; an alternative must be stated for an argument to take effect.
The song must also appeal to a broad audience, and build on common ground with them. Only then may an argument have enough strength to have any chance of success. For example, Johnny Temple, in “Noise from Underground” points out this specific problem with a present day group:
For many kids at that time, punk music was one of the few vehicles for expressing anger toward what they perceived as the political and cultural bankruptcy around them. But Beefeater’s songs and the anti-apartheid activism they inspired were destined for obscurity. The music was far too loud and abrasive for most people over the age of 30…..
This problem hinders much underground music from being truly activist. If a song does not reach a broad audience, the position supported will also remain on the fringe of society, and cannot gather a large enough following to effect change.
Finally, the song must be supported by the personal life of the writer. He or she must consistently espouse certain positions, and actually work for the cause, in benefits, fieldwork, or grassroots programs, or be one of the people affected by the problems. As Larry Flick states in “ Artist Activism Takes on New Elements in the '90s”:
"It's no longer enough to just toss a couple of bucks toward an enormous organization or sing on a record where you're not completely sure of where the money's going," says Amy Ray of Indigo Girls, who--along with band mate Emily Saliers--works with a long list of organizations that includes Honor the Earth and Youth Pride. "We've reached a point where we need to set more of an example. Large groups have their merits, and they do a fine job in reaching some, but I've discovered that people are more often moved by action . . . by seeing us in the trenches, willing to get our hands dirty." For some artists, participating in grass-roots movements is what separates truly committed activists from artists hoping to parlay public good will into record sales. "It definitely happens," says Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett of career-motivated activism. "And, needless to say, it's extraordinarily offensive to those of us who have made career sacrifices to do the right thing. But I think the public has gotten savvy enough to tell the difference."
The song must be backed by the writers life, or the public will not take the message seriously. That is why the writer must either take part in organizations for the relief of the problem, or the writer must be one of the people effected by the problem.
How does This Land is Your Land compare to these standards? The song was certainly activist at the time it was written. Let us examine the lyrics, and identify their message. These are the original lyrics, from the manuscript:
This Land Was Made For You and Me
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 went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
This land was made for you and me.I roamed and rambled and 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.Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn't say nothing --
This land was made for you and me.When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:
This land was made for you and me.One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people --
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was made for you and me.*all you can write is
what you see.
Did this song have a coherent position on a contemporary issue? These words were written in 1940, as a response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. A David Shumway points out in his essay “Your Land: The Lost Legacy”:
While many listeners today know that “This Land Is Your Land was written as a left-wing response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” the song continues to be reprinted in collections of patriotic songs…. [T]his seemingly innocuous celebration is the most radical of all of Guthrie’s songs. The fact that the song’s radicalism was lost was not entirely the fault of an uncomprehending public. The first recording of the song… included only four verses, omitting the two or three explicitly radical ones. Given the Red Scare then in progress, it makes sense that this safer version should have been released….(132-133)
What issue was the song arguing about? The virtues of Socialism, and how Communism would help the poor. Woody Guthrie held socialist beliefs, though he never joined any one party. He preferred instead to speak for the people, as Cohen Woods points out in “Woody the Red?”:
Woody emerged as a performer and pundit during this time of electrifying cultural and political dislocations. Moreover, he connected with the Communist Party in Southern California…. Woody settled in Los Angeles in 1937 and soon appeared on local radio station KFVD. Particularly troubled by the plight of proliferating migrant workers, he took a turn toward political songs even before he met Ed Robbin, Los Angeles editor for the daily Peoples World (the West Coast equivalent of the Daily Worker), who had a radio show after Woody’s. Robbin asked Woody to sing at a Communist-sponsored meeting, while warning him of the radical politics. Woody responded, ‘I sing my songs wherever I can sing ‘em. So if you’ll have me, I’ll be glad to go,’ and go he did. With some hyperbole, this about sums up Woody’s politics at the time, and later.
He was not affiliated with the Communist party, but shared many of their beliefs. He even defended Stalinist Russia on the air during his radio show when they attacked Poland in 1939 (Partridge 76). He was certainly taking a stance on the issue of what government should be—an issue that was a leading topic as the Depression and New Deal dragged on. This song, with its attacks on private property and calls for reform, had a coherent position on a contemporary issue.
This Land is Your Land must also lobby for change in society to solve the problem—and it does just that. The fourth and the sixth verses carry the message of the song. In them is Guthrie’s call for change in society, whereas the other verses seem to only be praising the United States. As people on the internet have noted:
Guthrie’s song is, in part, a celebration of the natural beauty of the United States . But what Guthrie is also celebrating is the fact that the land actually belongs to us! When he says “This land is your land/this land is my land,” he means just what he is saying: This land is communal property, not is some vague patriotic sense, but in a very real economic sense. Private ownership of the land is a meaningless claim, or worse still, theft. This is made clearest in the fourth verse where the singer says:
Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was posted, said “Private Property”
But on the back side, it didn’t say nothing --
This land was made for you and meAlso, when Guthrie is praising the natural beauty and bounty of the United States, he is not doing this to simply glorify his homeland. Instead, he does this to set up a contrast in the sixth verse, between the riches of the United States and the poverty of many of its people:
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office I saw my people--
As they stood hungry,
I stood there wondering
if this land was made for you and me?Again the question arises, how can a song that calls for collective ownership, denies the concept of private property and paints the U.S. as a miserly nation that robs its people of their dignity be commonly mistaken as a patriotic hymn? This is because the song is mostly sung without the offending fourth and sixth verses, something that even Guthrie himself would do on occasion.
The song argues that the issues at stake may be solved by holding the land in common: “This land is your land, this land is my land.” This argument satisfies another of the criteria: this song lobbies for change in society to solve the problem.
Woody Guthrie’s songs appealed to the populous of the country, the poor people displaced by the Depression. He spoke out for the Okies, the migrants to California of the dust bowl years, of which he was one. Henrietta Yurchenco, in A Mighty Hard Road, notes:
Woody was the poet of his people, just as Robert Burns of Scotland and Fredrico Garcia Lorca of Spain were of theirs.... Like them, he sang the old songs of his people, revamped them to fit the times, and infused them with new life…. In his songs and writings he combined country wit, pioneer traditions, and colorful and unhackneyed country language with a skilled writer’s art. He represents, better than anyone else, the human unity of rural and urban America (11).
And the people loved his songs. He had a receptive audience among the poor of the Depression. Furthermore, his popularity is still on the rise, though his more radical ideas are usually ignored. “His popularity, influence, and reputation as possibly Oklahoma’s most creative and multi-talented product continue into the twenty-first century (Logsdon).” He had the audience necessary to be a true activist.
Did Woody Guthrie’s life reflect the words? All through his life he championed the causes of the common laborers, and was of the common people himself. He was a hobo, who never stayed in one place for long. He never held a steady job. Elizabeth Partridge, in This Land Was Made for You and Me, states:
Woody Guthrie could never cure himself of wandering off. One minute he’d be there, the next he’d be gone, vanishing without a word to anyone, abandoning those he loved best. He’d throw on a few extra shirts, one on top of the other, sling his guitar over his shoulder, and hit the road. He’d stick out his thumb and hitchhike, swing onto a moving freight trains, and hunker down with other traveling men in flophouses, hobo jungles, and Hoovervilles across Depression America. He moved restlessly from state to state, soaking up songs: work songs, mountain and cowboy songs, sea chanteys, songs from southern chain gangs. He added them to the dozens he already knew from his childhood until he was bursting with American Folk songs. Playing the guitar and singing, he started making up new ones: hard-bitten, rough-edged songs that told it like it was, full of anger and hardship and hope and love (1).
Later she tells of the time he wrote “This Land Is Your Land:”
Just after New Years Day in 1940, Woody set off on one of his unannounced road trips. He left his wife and three kids in a shack in Texas and headed for New York City . It was a long, cold trip in the dead of winter, and every time he stopped in a diner he heard Irving Berlin’s lush, sentimental song, “God Bless America ,” on the jukebox. It was exactly the kind of song Woody couldn’t stand, romanticizing America , telling people not to worry, that God would take care of everything. Woody thought there was plenty to worry about. The Great Depression, which had begun in 1929, was grinding on. For years, desperate, hungry people had been tramping the roads and riding the rails, looking for work or handouts. In Europe another world war was raging, threatening to pull America into the bloody conflict. Bits of tunes and snatches of words swirled in Woody’s mind, and a few weeks later in a cheap, fleabag hotel in New York City , his own song about America came together. Using an old Baptist tune for the melody, Woody wrote “This Land is Your Land.” His song caught the bittersweet contrasts of America : the beauty of our country, and the desperate strength of people making do in impossibly difficult times. Across the bottom of the sheet Woody wrote in his neat script, “All you can write is what you see,” and put the song away (2).
His songs agreed with his life as an Okie; he wrote fore his people. His life agreed with his songs, and furthermore he had personal experience with the topic he covered in “This Land is Your Land.”
So then, the song met every criteria for activism at the time it was written. However, it no longer does, for the issue is settled and the audience is largely gone. The issue addressed in this song is Socialism. Shumway notes:
[T]he song’s radical meaning could have been understood by any one who sought to discover it. Indeed, the song’s chief message lies in its title and the opening line, “This land is your land/ This land is my land.” What is being claimed here is nothing less than common ownership of the American land. The land is not the landlord’s, not the bosses’, not the rich people’s, but yours and mine. We, the workers, the migrants, the poor, the landless, own this land…. By specifically rejecting the sign’s claim of “private property,” Guthrie makes clear the radical message of the song as a whole (133).
This song lobbies for communism. However, every communist experiment has failed to produce good results, instead often causing a bloodbath. Communism is no longer an accepted alternative. The issue of a change to our government is dead. This song’s point dies with the issue. Furthermore, the audience has gone. After World War II, it was already leaving as hatred for Communists increased, as Partridge shows:
The United States, already deeply leery of Communism, became obsessed with the fear that Communism would wipe out democracy worldwide. The FBI immediately opened a file on People’s Songs, photocopying and stealing documents, recording phone calls, and infiltrating meetings. The folksingers’ plans to encourage unions were highly suspicious. Besides, there were known Communist members in the group. The FBI surveillance coincided with a purge of Communists throughout the unions. Some unions went so far as to forbid anyone associated with Communism to play for them. After enjoying incredible popularity, the folksingers found themselves unwelcome at many union rallies and strikes (151-152).
Now few are desperate, and certainly, no class is militantly seeking change. The end to the economic disaster of the 1930s slowly brought the end to the poor migrants. No one in the United States is going to starve to death, and there is no receptive audience for Woody Guthrie’s message.
So then, the song is no longer activist rhetoric, though it once was. When it was written, “This Land is Your Land” had a coherent position on a contemporary issue, lobbied for change in society, appealed to a broad audience, and was supported by Guthrie’s personal experience. Now, however, the position it took is no longer tenable because of the failure of communism, and the audience to which it appealed for support against the rich are no longer so desperate as to consider revolution. It no longer satisfies the criteria for activism, for “This Land is Your Land” argued on an issue now settled, to an audience now gone.
Works Cited
Cohen, Ronald. “Woody the Red?” Hard Travelin’: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. Eds. Santelli, Robert, and Davidson, Emily. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1999. 138-152.
Flick, Larry. “Artist Activism Takes on New Elements in the ‘90s.” Academic Search Elite Billboard, 12/26/98, Vol. 110/111, Issue 52/1. October 8, 2002.
Logsdon, Guy. Woody Guthrie. Oklahoma Historical Society October 6, 2002http://www.ok-history.nus.ok.us/enc/woody.htm
Partridge, Elizabeth. This Land Was Made for You and Me. New York: Viking: Penguin Group. 2002
Shumway, David. “Your Land: The Lost Legacy of Woody Guthrie.” Hard Travelin’: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. Eds. Santelli, Robert, and Davidson, Emily. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1999. 128-137.
Temple, Johnny. “Noise from Underground.” Academic Search Elite Nation, 10/18/99 Vol. 269 Issue 12, p17, 4p. October 2, 2002.
This Land is Your Land October 2, 2002 http://angam.ang.univie.ac.at/roadcult/guthrie/Land.htm
Yurchenco, Henrietta. A Mighty Hard Road. New York: McGraw-Hill Co. 1970.