Tag Archives: woody guthrie

This Land is Your Land: Peace Song for 9/26/2011

“This Land is Your Land” is the Peace Song of the Day for Monday, September 26th. The song was written by Woody Guthrie.

This song has also become a favorite of the Occupy Movement. It’s been sung a lot at Occupy Wall Street in NYC (see story: here) They also sang it at Occupy Albany (see the video: here), at Occupy Burlington (see the video: here), and many other occupations.

“This Land is Your Land” has become a true folk song, with many verses. You can find extensive lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook, on page 5. Though, don’t hesitate to make up your own words. In the video below, Father Bill Brisotti adds one verse about unjustly pushing Native Americans on to reservations, and another verse that asserts, “This land is your land. This land is my land. It’s not the bank’s land…”

More about this choice: Continue reading This Land is Your Land: Peace Song for 9/26/2011

Peace Song of the Day: Sunday 7/17/2011

Woody Guthrie NYWTSDuke Augustus: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) by Woody Guthrie. This song was chosen from Duchess Susanna’s copy of  Rise Up Singing .  This poem was written by Guthrie in response to the 1948 plane crash.  Over 60 years later, we are still fighting the same battle.  Ten years latter, Martin Hoffman wrote the music.  Pete Seeger and Woody’s son, Arlo, have popularized the song. Unfortunately, the racist attitudes in this song are as common today as they were when they were written 60 years ago.

This is video is a little shaky, but worth it to hear Arlo explain about how his father wrote the song:  Continue reading Peace Song of the Day: Sunday 7/17/2011