['This Land Is Your Land' is our true national anthem.
Not because it's ever been adopted by any gummint body
-- it ain't -- but because it's been adopted by the
people. It's been sung, strummed, hummed, picked and
played by young and old, by Black and white, through New
Deal and Cold War and after. It's been covered by
everybody who is anybody in music and sung by everybody
who is nobody. It's words are simple, inclusive,
democratic, radical, defiant and unforgettable.

The Okie who wrote that song -- Woody Guthrie -- would
have turned 100 this week. If Woody had never written
another word, he'd have been one of our greatest. But he
wrote hundreds of others -- about workers and unions,
about immigrants and hobos. About picnics and Jesus and
rivers and robbers. Playful songs, sad songs, romantic
songs -- but no givin' up or puttin' down songs. Getting
to know Woody is a joyful voyage -- of gettin' to know
who you are and who we all are together. Now is as good
a time as any to travel a little ways down that river.

Woody said about his songs:

     I hate a song that makes you think you are not any
     good. I hate a song that makes you think that you
     are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to
     nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too
     old or too young or too fat or too slim. Too ugly
     or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or
     poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard
     traveling. I'm out to fight those songs to my very
     last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am
     out to sing songs that will prove to you that this
     is your world and that if it has hit you pretty
     hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter
     what color, what size you are, how you are built, I
     am out to sing the songs that make you take pride
     in yourself and in your work.

To set off, you might go to woodyguthrie.org or to
woody100.com/calendar.htm. Or listen to some of the songs
below and just see where they lead you. -- video
moderator.]

1 Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen -- 'This Land Is Your Land'
2 Joan Baez -- 'Deportee'
3 Billy Bragg -- 'Union Maid'
4 Woody Guthrie -- 'Jesus Christ'
5 Arlo Guthrie -- 'Woody's Rag'
6 Bob Dylan -- 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie'

=====
11111

This Land Is Your Land

Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen (and lots of others)
perform all the verses, including the sometimes
neglected most radical ones, at President Obama's
inauguration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KnYADCSms
Jan 19, 2009
4:43

=====
22222

Joan Baez -- 'Deportee'

A song of immigrant life and farm labor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWFPLjYEaw
Sept 4, 2009
5:19

=====
33333
Billy Bragg -- 'Union Maid'

From Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert (Clearwater
Concert), Madison Square Garden, 5/3/09. Featuring Billy
Bragg, Mike & Ruthy Merenda, Dar Williams, New York City
Labor Chorus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs5_gB582IM
Dec 2, 2010

=====
44444

Woody Guthrie -- 'Jesus Christ'

Jesus Christ, written and performed by Woody Guthrie,
1940. Uploaded by contrarymary77.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDS00Pnhkqk
Dec 26, 2007
2:40

=====
55555

Arlo Guthrie -- 'Woody's Rag'

What it takes for Woody to win the heart of a woman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy9PaW2t9dM
Feb 12, 2011
3:56

=====
66666

Bob Dylan -- 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie'

"Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie" is a poem written by
American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, and recited live
during his April 12, 1963 performance at New York City's
Town Hall.[1] It was released in 1991 on The Bootleg
Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 after
circulating on bootleg releases for years, even
appearing on the ten-LP box set Ten of Swords in 1985.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OdNY8Aybw
7:13

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