Hey, Woody!

Today — in addition to being quatorze juillet, or what we Americans call “Bastille Day” — is the day when Woody Guthrie would be 95 years old. Woody, father of Arlo Guthrie and long-time collaborator with and friend to Pete Seeger, penned endless songs in the folk style, songs of protest, politics, praise, and fight. He championed the “talking blues” style that Bob Dylan, who used Woody as a mentor, carried on with. Woody Guthrie died of Huntington's Disease in 1967.

This is probably his most famous song (he sang many variations, so this is just one):

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 is made for you and me.

As I went walking this ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land is made for you and me.

I roam and I ramble and I follow my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond desert
The mist is lifting and a voice is saying:
This land is made for you and me.

Where the wind is blowing I go a strolling
The wheat field waving and the dust a rolling
The fog is lifting and the wind is saying:
This land is made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking my freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land is made for you and me.

Happy birthday, Woody.