Pete Seeger: This Land Is Your Land

Enough with the rockets’ red glare. Woody’s song should be the National Anthem. Hearing Pete Seeger sing it with Bruce Springsteen and hundreds of thousands of jubilant Americans gathered at the Lincoln Memorial made me weep with joy.

With the bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln presiding as a backdrop,  Pete prompted the crowd to sing the song’s radical alternate verses:

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I saw my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “Private Property.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

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