When Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in 1940, he hoped to create a counterpoint to “God Bless America.” Tenuously religious, and with communist sympathies, Guthrie thought Irving Berlin’s patriotic melody was a little too smug.

So in the original lyrics of his famous folk song, Guthrie sang: “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/ God blessed America for me.”