Rapid Response Choir

This Land is Your Land

Performance hints: Pitch: G

Chords: G D A D

This land is your land, and 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 I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me

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

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
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 comes shining, then I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice come chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

[Repeat 1st verse.: ]

Credits: Woodie Guthrie
Notes: Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 as a counterpoint to Irvin Berlin's "God Bless America", and as a protest against the vast income inequalities that exist in the United States, and against the sufferings of millions during the Great Depression. Woody spent many years wandering around the US: walking, hitchhiking, hopping on freight trains. The tune was based on the gospel song "When the World's on Fire".