This Land Is Your Land (unsourced)

For other versions of this work, see This Land Is Your Land.

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This Land Is Your Land (1940)
by Woody Guthrie

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"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs, written by Woody Guthrie in 1940. It was originally written in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie considered that song unrealistic and complacent, and was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, so he wrote a different song, originally called "God Blessed America for Me." Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses that often do not appear in recordings or publications.

— Excerpted from This Land Is Your Land on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

The publication 10 of Woody Guthrie's Songs was submitted as evidence in the court case JibJab v Ludlow to prove this song was in the Public domain.[1]

40404This Land Is Your Land1940Woody Guthrie

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CHORUS:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream waters,
   This land was made for you and me

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
   This land was made for you and me

CHORUS

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
And all around me, a voice was sounding:
   This land was made for you and me

CHORUS

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn't say nothing —
   This land was made for you and me

CHORUS

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
The voice was sounding as the fog was lifting:
   This land was made for you and me

CHORUS

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
   This land was made for you and me

CHORUS

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do."

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.

For Class A renewal records (books only) published between 1923 and 1963, check the Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database.
For other renewal records of publications between 1922–1950, see the University of Pennsylvania copyright records.
For all records since 1978, search the U.S. Copyright Office records.

Works published in 1945 could have had their copyright renewed in 1972 or 1973, i.e. between January 1st of the 27th year after publication or registration and December 31st of the 28th year. As this work's copyright was not renewed, it entered the public domain on January 1st, 1974.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1967, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 56 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

It is imperative that contributors ascertain that there is no evidence of a copyright renewal before using this license. Failure to do so will result in the deletion of the work as a copyright violation.

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