This Land Is Your Land

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Audio sample: "This Land Is Your Land" (recording from 2007)

This Land Is Your Land is the title of one of the most famous folk songs in the United States , written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 and becoming an evergreen .

History of origin

Woody Guthrie was a leading figure in the American political-folk movement. He wrote the original version of the song on February 23, 1940 in the cheap New York hotel Hanover House , where he wrote all six stanzas at night. The song was a parody of Irving Berlin's patriotic God Bless America in the version of Kate Smith thought (recorded on 21 March 1939 published in April 1939, Victor 26198, rank 10 of the US charts ), the hereby intense airplay on radio stations was bestowed . The melody of This Land Is Your Land was based on Oh, My Loving Brother of the Alabama Four (recorded October 6, 1927), which was adapted by the Carter Family as When The World's On Fire (May 24, 1930).

Guthrie went without an appointment during his vacation from the merchant navy on April 16, 1944 to the music producer Moses "Moe" Asch , who owned a recording studio and later founded the record label Folkways Records . That day, Asch recorded two titles from Guthrie. Asch had never heard of Guthrie, but was immediately convinced of him. This was followed by highly productive recording sessions on April 19, 1944 (63 tracks), April 20 (25 tracks), April 24 (19 tracks) and April 25 (30 tracks). This Land Is Your Land was only recorded after April 25, 1944 as the tenth of 31 tracks (Matrix MA 114), a total of over 160 songs with Moe Asch.

In six verses, the song enumerates the extreme geographic regions between California and New York, the redwood forests and the Gulf region , glorifies the landscapes and stylizes travel as a quasi-religious experience. Although Guthrie never hit the charts, he was on everyone's lips and created an evergreen. Guthrie initially titled his six-verse composition God Blessed America For Me , but his concept was already titled This Land Was Made For You And Me during the recording session ; Asch's studio recordings then said This Land is My Land . This version was only discovered in 1997 and put on CD. A Stinson Records metal master dated May 19, 1944.

Publication and Success

Guthrie's first recording of This Land Is Your Land was initially unreleased. At the same time as the copyright registration, the original sheet music in the booklet “Ten Twenty-Five Cent Songs by Woodie Guthrie” was released on April 3, 1945. The song was later spread more via music books than on records . The radio station WNYC broadcast between December 1944 and February 14, 1945 a 15-minute radio program "Folksongs by Woody Guthrie" in several episodes, with the title running as a theme song.

The standard 3-verse version first appeared on record in 1948, on the LP Work Songs To Grow On (Folkways Records 7027). On January 7, 1952, there was a remake with the already very sick Guthrie for Decca Records , produced by Milt Gabler . The recording was not released until 1996. According to BMI , Guthrie has 841 copyright registered titles.    

Cover versions

At least 39 cover versions are known. The song was covered by many folk musicians in particular. The first was evidently Paul Clayton (March 1960), followed by the Kingston Trio (June 1961), Flatt & Scruggs (August 1962). The New Christy Minstrels reached rank 93 in the US Pop Hit Parade (December 1962), Ketty Lester rank 97 (December 1962). This was followed in particular by Peter, Paul and Mary (January 1963), Harry Belafonte (May 1963), Trini Lopez (July 1963) and Glen Campbell (October 1963).

In Europe, national language versions were adopted. Dalida brought the title Ce coin de terre ("This piece of land"; French text: Pierre Cour; January 1964) on the market. In Germany in 1964 the headline was The Country Four , This country is your country related to Germany. Hartmut, Sigrun and Knut Kiesewetter came onto the market with a different text in 1964, the Günter Tilgert choir parodied with Everyone says as best they can (1963).

Further English-language versions were then from The Seekers (June 1965), Wanda Jackson (July 1969), Tennessee Ernie Ford (February 1970), Bruce Springsteen (November 1986) or Bob Dylan (live version from May 1, 1961; August 2005) .

Public domain

On July 9, 2004, two film animators released a very successful short film called This Land on the Internet under the name JibJab Media , in which they used This Land Is Your Land as background music . The short film mocked presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry and was featured on several US talk shows . The music publisher Ludlow Music , which represents the work This Land Is Your Land , informed JibJab Media in writing of the existing copyright protection on July 20, 2004 and prohibited further publication of the film with the music as part of a cease and desist declaration . On July 23, 2004, JibJab responded by claiming that This Land Is Your Land was in the public domain and, if not, that it was a legal reproduction under the Fair Use doctrine. On July 29, 2004, Ludlow was sued by JibJab in the United States District Court For The Northern District of California in San Francisco , after which the parties reached an out-of-court settlement . JibJab pays 20% of its net income from film exploitation to the Woody Guthrie Foundation and is allowed to exploit the film in return.

The term of the copyright ( Seal of Copyright # 154085 ) began with the publication of notes in 1945, so that under US law at the time, the public domain began in 1973 after 28 years. A copyright extension that would hinder the public domain should have been made until 1973, but did not take place until 1984. Fair use was out of the question because satire has not yet been recognized by US courts as a reason for fair use.

Unlike in the USA, the song is still protected by copyright in Germany, as the standard protection period does not end until 70 years after the death of the composer ( Section 64 UrhG), who died in 1967. Here, the standard protection period is not linked to the date of publication, but to the date of death of the author. This also applies to the entire European Union and Switzerland .

reception

This Land Is Your Land never became a huge hit parade or sales success, but it is still very well known today and is an integral part of American culture. It is revered by many as the second American national anthem and is sung in school classes, by church choirs or on the radio for all ages. On March 13, 1975, it was sung simultaneously by millions of schoolchildren during the first annual "Music in Our Schools Day" and has since been one of the typical songs sung on Independence Day and other national occasions. George HW Bush used it as the campaign song for the US presidential election in 1988 . The song has been number 3 on the RIAA's list of Songs of the Century since 2001 .

Because of its cultural and historical significance to the United States, the song was entered into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress on January 27, 2003 .

The music project 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs published the title on its website in March 2017 as a protest against the policies of US President Donald Trump . The sister project Our First 100 Days added a cover version of indie musician Phosphorescent to their playlist .

See also

literature

  • Michael Behrendt: I don't like Mondays. The 66 biggest song misunderstandings. Darmstadt 2017. p. 32 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Patrick Bunyan, All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities , 2010, p. 253.
  2. ^ Robert Santelli, This Land is Your Land: Woodie Guthrie and The Journey of an American Folk Song , 2012, o.p.
  3. ↑ Woody Guthrie: This Land is Your Land , Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1997, Liner Notes, pp. 25 ff. (PDF; 32.1 MB)
  4. ^ Richard Nate, American Dreams , 2003, p. 274.
  5. ^ Robert Santelli, This Land is Your Land: Woodie Guthrie and The Journey of an American Folk Song , 2012, o.p.
  6. ^ Woody Guthrie, Ten Twenty-Five Cent Songs , 1945, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Mark Allan Jackson, Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 1988, p. 28 ff. (PDF; 886 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / etd.lsu.edu
  8. ↑ He suffered from Huntington's disease, a hereditary nerve disease
  9. ↑ This country is your country, this country is my country / from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea through the beautiful Rhineland / past the Black Forest to Lake Constance / This country belongs to you and me
  10. ↑ Bush and Kerry sang "this land will surely vote for me"
  11. ↑ Peter Irvine / Kohel Haver, This Land Belongs to All of Us ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2004, p. 2 ff. (PDF; 77 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.peterirvinelaw.com
  12. ↑ a b Ace Collins, Songs Sung Red, White and Blue , 2009, p. 187 f.
  13. ^ Jacqueline Edmondson: Music in American Life. An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture. Greenwood, Santa Barbara 2013, ISBN 978-0-3133-9348-8 , p. 851.
  14. ↑ This Land Is Your Land on the National Recording Registry. Retrieved August 13, 2017 .
  15. ↑ 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs. Dave Eggers & Jordan Kurland, accessed March 28, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Our First 100 Days. Secretly Canadian , accessed April 30, 2017 .