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This Land Is Your Land/Where Something Happened
Arlo Guthrie
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Lyrics
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As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land and 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
Of course, I've been singing this song since I was just a little kid
It's one of the few songs my father actually took me
I didn't mean to stop
But it's one of the few songs my dad actually made me learn
Most of them I learned off of records
Or from friends like Ramblin' Jack and others, or Pete
Uh, but this one, he took me out in the backyard and I'll never forget, you know
Showed me how it went and stuff
And I've been singing it since then
And that was a long time ago
And I got a sneaking suspicion about songs like this
I don't know if you're with me on this or not
But people like to go where something happened
Have you ever noticed that?
Could be a famous battleground or something
People like to go there, get a little taste or something
Could be a miracle
Doesn't matter if the event is good, bad, or indifferent
If something happened, people want to go there
My sneaking suspicion is that every time
People go to a place like that
They leave a little piece of themselves
So the next time somebody goes
There's even more there than there was to begin with
And it keeps piling up year after year
Decade after decade, century after century
'Til finally you get anywhere near a place like that, man
You can feel it, it's real, it's palpable stuff
And I don't know what it is
Could be the spirit of the people
Or the event or something
I think the same thing happens with songs
Might write a song, might not be all that much to it
You get enough people singing it over the years
And decades, and pretty soon
Everyone's leaving a little piece of themselves
So that finally, you know
You get anywhere near a song like that
You can feel it, there's a spirit to it
My sneaking suspicion is it's the spirit of the people
That have been singing it all that time
Each time just leaving a little piece of themselves
And that's sort of what we're doing
You know, we pass these songs on
Generation after generation
Leaving a little piece and it just continues
The spirit of the people that have been singing the songs
And doing the stuff
And that's what I think happened to this song right here
I remember my dad taking me out there
Actually, you know what?
I remember my mom going over to China
Somewhere in the 80s
They were inviting these artistic types to go over there
She had been a dancer with the Martha Graham Company down in New York
And they were inviting people like that
To go over to China when they was getting opened up
She comes back, she said, "Arlo, I was out in the middle of China
And they brought out some school children
And they started singing us some songs
And they started singing, this land is your land"
I said, stop the song
My husband wrote that song
She must have drove them nuts
She was driving me crazy about it
It was weeks after she got back
She hadn't slowed down one little bit about it
And I just looked at her, I said, mom, what are they singing it for over there?
I mean, California to the New York Island
She looked at me with one of those mom kind of looks, She said, oh, Arlo
She walked away
She left me standing there, feeling like my usual self
I knew she was right, but I didn't know why
Until one day, it comes to me
Just because it said California to the New York Island
Didn't mean it had to go the short way
I could see it going around back
Maybe up over the top or something like that
And then
Then the whole world could be singing that song
Except America
I remember when I had that thought for the first time
I realized I didn't know any more after thinking than before I'd begun
But I never let it stop me
Which brings me to this last verse here
That day, my dad took me out in the backyard
He showed me the chords
Taught me the verses everybody was singing
There was three of them at that time
When I had that much done
He taught me some verses that nobody had ever heard before
Everybody knows them now
I've been singing them around for 50 years more
But I will leave you tonight with the last one
There's other verses
Everybody can find them
But I always loved this one
It's the last one I ever heard him sing
And I'll leave it with you
Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land and 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 (sing it, if you know it)
This land is your land and 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
Thank you very much, have a goodnight, I appreciate you for being here
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