Stepping onto the streets of New York City for the first time in 1940, Woody Guthrie had a feeling things would be different. He had left behind a disintegrating family life and plenty of economic troubles, but that was Oklahoma, and this was New York.
Guthrie did indeed find success. The familiar tune of “This Land Is Your Land” is still famed today — some have even called it an alternative national anthem. But many of the same troubles that plagued Guthrie back in Oklahoma haunted him in New York, and Guthrie concluded that it must be the system’s fault. Indeed, “This Land Is Your Land” was meant to be a retort to the idea that the American Dream is as accessible as we might think.
An unreleased verse of the song, discovered by Smithsonian archivist Jeff Place, originally read:
“There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.
The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’
But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.”
But woe to any musician today who steps foot onto Guthrie’s intellectual property.
A federal judge ruled this week that “This Land” is still Guthrie’s private property and, therefore, must be respected by other musicians and groups who would perform the song.
A group of artists had asked the court to declare Guthrie’s copyright invalid so that they would not have to pay a fee for the proper licenses. But Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, argued that her father would not have wanted his work to be made public to the “evil forces” of manipulation.
“Our control of this song has nothing to do with financial gain,” Nora Guthrie explained.
Regardless of motives, “This Land,” it turns out, is not for you and me.
